Pharmacological Screening and Phytochemical Evaluation of Anti-Diabetic Activity of Allium Cepa in Alloxan Induced Diabetic Rats

Diabetes mellitus is a most common endocrine disorder, affecting more than 300 million people worldwide. For these therapies developed along the principles of allopathic are often limited in efficacy, Carry the risk of adverse effects, and are often too costly, especially for the developing world. In order to identify complementary or alternative approaches to existing medications, we studied the anti-diabetic potential of leaves of Allium cepa. The acute oral toxicity studies of the extracts revealed no toxic effects up to the levels of 2000mg/kg b.wt. The aqueous and alcoholic extracts of 20 and 30mg/kg body weight of Allium cepa was screened for the presence of hypoglycemic and antidiabetic activity. In this study diabetes was induced by a single IP dose Alloxan monohydrate in 72hrs fasted rats. The FBGL was carried on 7th, 14th and 21st day and OGTT was measured on 8th, 15th and 22nd day. Glibenclamide was taken as the standard and the results are quite comparable with it. The studies were indicated that the leaves of Allium cepa are effective in regeneration of insulin secreting β-cells and thus possess antidiabetic activity. The aqueous and alcoholic extracts showed significant effect in decreasing the Fasting blood Glucose level and oral glucose tolerance test of rats and it’s also showed good hypoglycemic activity in normal glycemic rats. The preliminary phytochemical analysis of the extracts of Allium cepa revealed the presence of Alkaloids, Tannins, Anthraquinones, Flavonoids, Saponins, Triterpenes, Sterols, Coumarin as the possible biologically active principles.