Medicinal utility and cardiovascular protection of pomegranate or ginger in the treatment of diabetic/obese rats

Document Type : Original Article

Authors

1 Department of Zoology, Faculty of Women for Arts, Science and Education, Ain Shams University, Cairo, Egypt.

2 Biological Applications Department, Nuclear Research Center, Atomic Energy Authority, Egypt

Abstract

Diabetes and obesity are representing a major public health problem that is on rise worldwide. In this work, a comparison study was occurred between normal control ones, diabetic/obese animals group (without treatment), diabetic/obese rats group treated with 500mg pomegranate/kg b.wt by the aid of oro-gastric tube for one month and diabetic/obese rats group treated with 400mg ginger/kg b.wt by the aid of oro-gastric tube for one month to evaluate the alterations in the carbohydrate profile, lipids picture, heart enzymes activity and cardiac markers associated with the changes in oxidative and antioxidant status in the heart tissues due to experimentally initiation of diabetes/obesity (DM/Ob). Initiation of diabetes/obesity was occurred in rats by the administration of both streptozotocin/nicotinamide to induce diabetes and cholesterol/cholic acid to induce obesity. Comparing to diabetic/obese rats group, significant corrections were occurred in studied parameters after diabetic/obese rats treated by pomegranate or ginger for one month. These findings are consistent with the concept that pomegranate or ginger is hypoglycemic and hypolipidemic agents. The fundamental mechanisms of these properties were explained with obtainable modern researches.

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