Evaluation of antidiabetic activity of Euphorbia hirta Linn. in streptozotocin induced diabetic mice.

Euphorbia hirta Linn. (Family-Euphorbiaceae) is widely used in traditional system of medicine to treat diabetes in India. The ethanolic extracts (250 and 500 mg/kg) of leaf, flower and stem were taken upundertaken to evaluate the antidiabetic activity against normal and streptozotocin (STZ) induced diabetic mice. Oral administration of the extracts for 21 days resulted in a significant reduction in blood glucose level. Chronic effects of the extracts on serum biochemistry were also studied and it was found that serum cholesterol, triglycerides, creatinine, urea, alkaline phosphatase levels were decreased significantly by all the extracts and Glibenclamide but HDL levels and total proteins were found to be increased after treatments. Thus, this study shows that E. hirta has antidiabetic action and the extracts should further be subjected to bioactivity guided drug discovery to isolate a lead compound responsible for this activity.