Effect of administration of Teucrium polium on blood glucose and lipid levels in

Introduction: Recently, the search for appropriate hypoglycemic agents has been focused on plants. Teucrium polium is traditionally used in Iran to manage, control and treat diabetes. We designed this study to elucidate the effect of the administration of oral doses of aqueous and ethanol extract from Teucrium polium on plasma glucose, lipid profiles and liver enzymes in diabetic and non diabetic rats. Methods: In this study, we used 50 rats, which were divided into 5 groups (n=10): two groups served as nondiabetic controls (NDC), while the other groups had diabetes induced with a single injection of streptozotocin (STZ). Teucrium polium-treated chronic diabetic (TE-CD) and Teucrium polium-treated controls (TE-C) received 1g/l of Teucrium polium added to their drinking water for 8 weeks. Results: Administration of Teucrium polium caused Ca/Mg ratio, plasma glucose, glucose tolerance test (IPGTT), high density lipoprotein (HDL), triglyceride, very low density lipoprotein (VLDL) concentrations to return to normal levels, but total cholesterol and low density lipoprotein (LDL) and liver enzyme were increased. Conclusion: Our results support the hypothesis that Teucrium polium could play a role in the management of diabetes, but it has toxic effects on the liver in STZ-induced diabetic rats. It seems that Teucrium polium cannot be used for prevention of type one diabetes.