Survey on Anti-Diabetic Plants in Kashmir [India]

INTRODUCTION Diabetes is a metabolic disorder of carbohydrates, proteins and fats due to deficiency of insulin secretion. In the whole world, about 5% of the general populations are suffering from diabetes and this disease is taking the lives of people more than AIDS. The countries where people are suffering from this disease are India, USA, China, Japan, Indonesia, Pakistan, Brazil, Russia, Italy and Bangladesh. It has been seen that every fourth person with diabetes is an Indian and India is known as the Diabetes Capital of the world. Urban population is mostly affected. Study from Sheri Kashmir Institute of Medical Sciences (SKIMS, Soura) show that 2.5 to 8 % of the population is suffering from diabetes and 25 -26.5% people are in the prediabetic stage. Several drugs are available to decrease hyperglycaemia but these drugs have sideeffects. So the search for new drug/compound is essential to overcome the diabetic problems. It is still a challenge to medical community. Plant drugs and herbal formulations are considered to be very less toxic and with lesser side-effects than the synthetic ones [1,2,3] Indian traditional medicinal system Ayurveda and Unani system in particular claim to cure the diabetes with the use of natural substances[4] Acorus calamus (Family: Acoraceae) Local name: Sweet flag, Bach, Gora Bach, Vai Gander The anti-hyperglycemic activity of methanol extract of Acorus calamus (AC) rhizome in streptozotocin (STZ) induced diabetic rats has been studied. Oral Glucose Tolerance Test (OGTT) has been performed in normal rats. Male albino rats were made diabetic by STZ (40 mg/kg, intraperitoneally). 200mg/kg of AC extract was administered orally to diabetic rats for 21 days to determine the anti-hyperglycemic activity by estimating various biochemical parameters. Oral administration of AC methanol extract showed significant restoration of the levels of blood glucose level. After 21 days of treatment, blood glucose, lipid profile (total cholesterol, LDL and HDLcholesterol), glucose 6phosphatase, fructose 1,6 bisphosphatase levels and hepatic markers enzymes (aspartate Review Article