Hypoglycemic and Hypolipidemic Activities of Ethanolic Extract from Mimosa pudica L. in Normal and Streptozotocin-Induced Diabetic Rats

Context: Mimosa pudica L. its unique property to collapse when touched and opens up. Aims: To evaluate hypoglycemic and hypolipidemic activities of 80% ethanolic extract from whole plant of Mimosa pudica L. (MPE) by measuring fasting blood glucose in normal and streptozotocin (STZ)-induced diabetic rats treated with MPE. Materials and Methods: An eight-week study using MPE was performed in normal and streptozotocin (STZ)-induced diabetic rats. Hypoglycemic activities in normal and STZ-induced diabetic rats and oral glucose tolerance test (OGTT) and biochemical data include total cholesterol (TC), triglycerides (TG), high-density lipoprotein (HDL) and low-density lipoprotein (LDL) of MPE were compared with glibenclamide, a standard anti-diabetic drug. Results: OGTT showed that MPE did not decrease blood glucose both in normal and STZ-induced diabetic rats comparable to controls and glibenclamide treated rats. Moreover, MPE did not affect FBG in the normal rats. However, it significantly (p<0.05) decreased FBG in the diabetic rats while MPE increased HDL and decreased TC, TG and LDL in the diabetic rats. Conclusions: The results from this study confirmed the traditional use of Mimosa pudica L. for the treatment of diabetes mellitus.