Preliminary studies on the inorganic constituents of some indigenous hypoglycaemic herbs on oral glucose tolerance test.

Medicinal herbs used in indigenous medicines in crude forms for the management of diabetes mellitus, contain both the organic and inorganic constituents. It is known that certain inorganic mineral elements (potassium, zinc, calcium, traces of chromium, etc.) play an important role in the maintenance of normal glucose-tolerance and in the release of insulin from beta cells of islets of Langerhans. In the present study, 30 hypoglycaemic herbs were selected from indigenous folk medicines, Ayurvedic, Unani and Siddha systems of medicines. Special emphasis was given to their inorganic parts by carefully preparing ash (which contains mainly mineral elements) of the specific parts of the herbal samples under study. Next, the single dose effect on the oral glucose tolerance test (GTT) was studied using previously fasted albino rats. Similar effects were also compared with their organic parts of the concerned herbal samples in the form of 95% ethanolic extracts. In certain inorganic samples, more pronounced action (as glucose tolerance factor) were noticed than their corresponding organic parts.