©2023 AccScience Publishing RESEARCH ARTICLE Orally Administered Aqueous Extract of Pleurotus ostreatus Ameliorates Hyperglycemia in Streptozotocin-Induced Diabetic Rats Pratima Vishwakarma 1 *, Nijendra Nath Tripathi 1 , Veena B. Kushwaha 2 , Siddhartha Kumar Mishra 3 * 1 Bacteriology and Natural Pesticide Laboratory, Department of Botany, Deen Dayal Upadhyay Gorakhpur University, Gorakhpur, India 2 Department of Zoology, Deen Dayal Upadhyay Gorakhpur University, Gorakhpur, India 3 Department of Biochemistry, University of Lucknow, Lucknow, India *Corresponding Authors: Pratima Vishwakarma, Email: pratima.vishwakarma12@gmail.com; Siddhartha Kumar Mishra, Email: siddharthakm@yahoo.com Received: November 22, 2022; Accepted: March 15, 2023; Published: March 28, 2023 DOI: 10.36922/itps.273 Copyright: Author(s). This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Attribution Non-Commercial 4.0 International 4.0 (CC BY-NC 4.0), which permits all non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. Abstract: Pleurotus ostreatus (Jacq.) P. Kumm. (Family: Pleurotaceae), commonly known as oyster mushroom, has been widely used to treat various ailments from simple headache to serious ones like diabetes. The mushroom has been shown to exert anti-infammatory and antioxidant activities. In the present study, aqueous extract of P. ostreatus (AEPO) was examined for its antidiabetic activity in streptozotocin (STZ)-induced diabetic rats. STZ was administered to rats at 50 mg/kg body weight (i.p.), AEPO was orally administered at 100 and 200 mg/kg body weight, and metformin (500 mg/kg) was administered as positive control. The hypoglycemic effects of the AEPO were analyzed by assessing the blood glucose levels (oral glucose tolerance test, acute and postprandial antihyperglycemic activity), lipid parameters, and other hematological studies in comparison to standard drug (metformin). Results showed that AEPO caused a 26% reduction in blood glucose during fasting while 45% reduction in blood glucose during postprandial antihyperglycemic test in STZ-diabetic rats. It also helped in the normalizations of various complications associated with diabetes mellitus in rats. Observations from the current experiments indicate that P. ostreatus help in reduction of blood glucose level, thus confrming its antidiabetic activity in STZ-induced diabetes in rats. This study further advocates that supplementation of edible mushroom P. ostreatus could be a preventive approach in diabetes as well as in obesity management. Keywords: Antidiabetic, Pleurotus ostreatus, Streptozotocin, Metformin 1 1. Introduction Diabetes mellitus is known since ages as it has been mentioned in Ayurveda by Sushruta [1]. Diabetes mellitus is a chronic metabolic disease characterized by elevated plasma glucose concentration in fasting or postprandial state, or insulin resistance [2]. The World Health Organization and International Diabetes Federation reported an estimate of 10.5% (536.6 million people) global prevalence of diabetes, which is projected to rise to 643 million by 2030 and 783 million by 2045. An estimated 6.7 million deaths due to diabetes were reported in 2021. The incidences of diabetes are higher (3 in 4 adults) in low- and middle-income countries. Diabetes is characterized as a state of imbalance toward the factors that generate reactive oxygen radicals such as superoxide or hydroxyl radicals, and the level of antioxidant enzymes such as superoxide dismutases, catalase, and glutathione INNOSC Theranostics and Pharmacological Sciences 2023 Vol. 6 (No. 1) pp: 1-14 INNOSC Theranostics and Pharmacological Sciences Journal homepage: https://accscience.com/journal/ITPS