Natural Product Research

Formerly Natural Product Letters

ISSN: 1478-6419 (Print) 1478-6427 (Online) Journal homepage: http://www.tandfonline.com/loi/gnpl20

The hypoglycemic and antioxidant activities

of garden cress (Lepidium sativum L.) seed on
alloxan-induced diabetic male rats

Eman S. Attia, Afaf H. Amer & Manal A. Hasanein

To cite this article: Eman S. Attia, Afaf H. Amer & Manal A. Hasanein (2017): The hypoglycemic
and antioxidant activities of garden cress (Lepidium sativum L.) seed on alloxan-induced diabetic
male rats, Natural Product Research, DOI: 10.1080/14786419.2017.1413564

To link to this article: https://doi.org/10.1080/14786419.2017.1413564

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Published online: 13 Dec 2017.

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Download by: [Dr Eman Attia] Date: 08 January 2018, At: 04:48
 Natural Product Research, 2018
https://doi.org/10.1080/14786419.2017.1413564

SHORT COMMUNICATION

The hypoglycemic and antioxidant activities of garden cress

(Lepidium sativum L.) seed on alloxan-induced diabetic male
rats
Eman S. Attiaa,b, Afaf H. Amera and Manal A. Hasaneina
a
Faculty of Family Science, Department of Food Science, Taibah University, Al-Madinah Al-Munawwarah, Saudi
Arabia; bDepartment of Nutrition Education, National Nutrition Institute (NNI), Cairo, Egypt

ABSTRACT ARTICLE HISTORY

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The hypoglycemic and antioxidants activities of the methanol extract Received 14 October 2017
of Lepidium sativum seeds was tested in alloxan-induced diabetic Accepted 2 December 2017
male rats. Thirty male albino rats weighing 190–200 g were divided
KEY WORDS
into five groups as follows: negative control, positive control and Lepidium sativum; methanol
three diabetic groups treated with three concentrations of L. sativum extract; diabetes; alloxan;
methanol extract for four weeks. Induction of hyperglycemia in the antioxidant
positive control group increased blood glucose, glycated hemoglobin
A1c, immunoglobulins, liver enzyme, lipid peroxide and kidney
function, total cholesterol, low-density lipoproteins, very low-density
lipoproteins and decreased antioxidants and high-density lipoproteins
compared with the negative control. Furthermore, pancreas tissues
showed pathological changes compared with the negative control.
Treating the diabetic rats with L. sativum methanol extract decreased
blood sugar and restored all biochemical and histological changes to
the normal. It could be concluded that L. sativum methanol extract
succeeded in controlling diabetes, increasing antioxidants and
ameliorating lipid profile.

CONTACT  Eman S. Attia  eattia@taibahu.edu.sa

 Supplemental data for this article can be accessed at https://doi.org/10.1080/14786419.2017.1413564.
© 2018 Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group
 2   E. S. ATTIA ET AL.

1. Introduction
Diabetic or chronic hyperglycemic are expected to be more than 300 million by the year
2025 (King et al. 1998). The chronic hyperglycemia is associated with long-term complica-
tions, e.g. renal failure, blindness or diabetic cataract, poor metabolic control and increasing
risk of cardiovascular disease (Zimmet et al. 2001; Al-Malki and El Rabey 2015). The sustained
hyperglycemia leads to excessive production of free radicals (Bayraktutan 2002; Al-Malki
and El Rabey 2015). Plant-based herbal medicine is considered to be less toxic and free of
side effects compared to modern synthetic drugs (Brinker 1998; Al-Malki and El Rabey 2015).
Lipedium sativum (Garden cress – Family Cruciferae) is locally known as ‘hab arachad’. It is
considered as one of the popular medicinal herbs used in the community of Saudi Arabia,
Sudan and other Arabic countries (Shukla et al. 2012). L. sativum is largely recommended in
controlling many clinical problems as a phytotherapy for hypertension, diabetes control and
renal disease or consumed as salad supplement (Maier et al. 1998; Eddouks et al. 2002). The
HPLC analysis showed that the seeds of L. sativum contained benzoic, gallic, dihydroxy ben-
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zoic, vanillic, chlorogenic, 4- hydroxycoumaric and salycilic acids, pyrogallol, catechol, cate-
chin, caffeine, isoleucine and various imidazole alkaloids known as lepidine and semilepidine
(Yogesh et al. 2011).
The present study was carried out to evaluate the hypoglycemic and antioxidants activities
of different concentrations of a methanolic extract of L. sativum seed in alloxan-induced dia-
betic male rats.

2.  Results and discussion

2.1.  Fasting blood glucose and hemoglobin A1c
The positive control diabetic group (G2) showed a significant (p < 0.001) elevation in blood
glucose and glycated hemoglobin A1c levels (Table S1) compared with the negative control
group (G1). Alloxan damaged insulin secreting β-pancreatic cells, reduced endogenous insu-
lin release and lowered intake of glucose by the cells which leads to increased blood sugar
level and glycated hemoglobin A1c levels (Lenzen 2008). Administration of the L. sativum
methanol extract in G3, G4 and G5 significantly (p < 0.001) decreased blood glucose and
glycated hemoglobin A1c compared to the positive control group due to its possession of
antioxidant phenolic compounds (El-Dakak et al. 2013).

2.2.  Immunoglobulins (IgG, IgA and IgM)

Table (S1) shows that induction of diabetes significantly (p < 0.001) increased IgG, IgA and
IgM levels in the positive control (Al-Malki and El Rabey 2015; Qusti et al. 2016), whereas
administration of L. sativum seed methanol extract to the diabetic rats in G3, G4 and G5 for
4 weeks significantly decreased all immunoglobulins levels particularly in (G5) compared to
the positive control group (G2) due to the decrease in blood sugar.

2.3.  Liver enzymes

The mean value of serum ALT, AST, ALP significantly (p < 0.001) increased in (G2) as a result
of induced diabetes (Table S2) that reflects the active liver damage and inflammatory
 NATURAL PRODUCT RESEARCH   3

hepatocellular disorders result in extremely elevated transaminase level (Hultcrantz et al.

1986) due to the leakage of these enzymes from the liver cytosol into the blood stream
(Navarro et al. 1993). Treating the diabetic rats with L. sativum methanol extract in G3, G4
and G5 decreased these enzymes, which is in agreement with El-Dakak et al. (2013).

2.4.  Kidney functions

Induced diabetes in G2 significantly (p < 0.001) increased all Kidney functions parameters;
urea, creatinine and uric acid (Table S3) which is a sign of diabetic nephropathy (Al-Malki
and El Rabey 2015; Qusti et al. 2016). Treating diabetic rats with L. sativum methanol extract
significantly decreased these parameters approaching the negative control (Mohan et al.
2011).

2.5.  Antioxidants and lipid peroxide

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The positive control group (Table S4, S5) showed significant (p < 0.001) decrease in all anti-
oxidants (catalase, superoxide dismutase, glutathione reductase and glutathione reduced)
and significant (p < 0.001) increase of lipid peroxidation as a result of induced diabetes in
serum and liver tissue homogenate. Treating the diabetic rats of G3, G4 and G5 with L. sativum
seed methanol extract significantly (p < 0.001) increased all antioxidants and reduced lipid
peroxidation (Mohan et al. 2011). The dose of L. sativum in G5 showed better results.

2.6.  Serum lipids

Alloxan-induced diabetes in G2 significantly (p < 0.001) increased serum triglycerides, total
cholesterol, LDL cholesterol and VLDL cholesterol, whereas decreased serum HDL cholesterol
compared to the negative control (Table S6) which is consistent with (Mohan et al. 2011;
Qusti et al. 2016). Treating the diabetic rats with L. sativum methanol extracts significantly
ameliorated all lipid parameters (Chauhan et al. 2012).
The best dose of L. sativum was that of G5.

2.7.  Physiological evaluations

Tables S7–10 illustrate the changes in physiological evaluations, e.g. total body weight, food
intake (FI), body weight gain (BWG), food efficiency ratio (FER), organs weight and relative
organ weight are supplemented online in the supplementary material. BWG of the positive
control group significantly decreased with diabetes (Al-Malki and El Rabey 2015). FER was
also affected with diabetes and restored to normal after treatment with L. sativum methanol
extract. Other parameters were slightly affected as a result of induction of diabetes and
nearly restored their normal values after treatment with L. sativum.

2.8.  Histopathological examination of pancreas

In Figure S1, the diabetic control group (G2) showed inflamed acinar cells (lymphocytes and
eosinophil between islets cells) and marked inflammatory infiltrate corroded large ducts.
G3 showed improved tissues with few scattered lymphocytes between islets cells, whereas
 4   E. S. ATTIA ET AL.

G4 showed few lymphocytes at the periphery of the islets and no inflammation around large
ducts. G5 showed no evidence of inflammation and the pancreatic tissues were restored to
normal. Damage of pancreatic cells occurred due to induced diabetes (El-Dakak et al. 2013;
Al-Malki and El Rabey 2015). L. sativum methanol extract treatment restored pancreatic cells
to their normal histology. This is consistent with the improvement of biochemical parameters
(Awad et al. 2014).

3. Conclusion
In conclusion, L. sativum methanol extract has an anti-diabetic and anti-oxidant activity, and
restored the all biochemical tests and pancreas tissues to their normal condition. The best
L. sativum methanol extract dose that controlled blood glucose level and treated hypergly-
cemia was 300 mg/kg BW of 20% seed methanol extract.
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Supplementary material
Supplementary material relating to this article is available online, experimental, abbreviations, along-
side Tables S1–S10 and Figure S1.

Acknowledgement
The authors acknowledge with thanks the Deanship of Scientific Research, Taibah University, KSA for
its technical support.

Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Funding
The work was supported by the Deanship of Scientific Research, Taibah University, KSA [grant number
6065/1435].

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