Journal of Ethnopharmacology 96 (2005) 43–48 Fruit of the jambolan tree (Eugenia jambolana Lam.) and experimental diabetes M.T. Pepato ∗ , D.M. Mori, A.M. Baviera, J.B. Harami, R.C. Vendramini, I.L. Brunetti Departamento de An ´ alises Cl´ ınicas, Faculdade de Ciˆ encias Farmacˆ euticas—UNESP, Rua Expedicion´ arios do Brasil n. 1621, Araraquara-CEP 14801-902, SP, Brazil Received 25 June 2004; received in revised form 13 July 2004; accepted 14 July 2004 Available online 18 October 2004 Abstract The fruit of Indian Eugenia jambolana have been shown to have therapeutic properties, but because the therapeutic potential of a plant is related to the geographic region in which the plant was grown and to the part of the plant used, we investigated Brazilian Eugenia jambolana fruit using the same preparation and experimental methods as have been used in India. The well-established metabolic cage model was used to evaluate the physiological and metabolic parameters associated with streptozotocin-induced diabetes in rats (n = 10) which had been administered, by gavage, 50 mg per day of lyophilised Eugenia jambolana fruit-pulp extract for 41 days. We found that, compared to untreated controls, rats treated with the lyophilised fruit-pulp showed no observable difference in body weight, food or water intake, urine volume, glycaemia, urinary urea and glucose, hepatic glycogen, or on serum levels of total cholesterol, HDL cholesterol or triglycerides. No change was observed in the masses of epididymal or retroperitoneal adipose tissue or of soleus or extensor digitorum longus muscles. This lack of any apparent effect on the diabetes may be attributable to the regional ecosystem where the fruit was collected and/or to the severity of the induced diabetes. © 2004 Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved. Keywords: Eugenia jambolana; Fruit; Streptozotocin-diabetic rats; Anti-diabetic activity; Anti-hyperglycaemic effect 1. Introduction Diabetes mellitus is a group of metabolic diseases charac- terised by hyperglycaemia resulting from defects in insulin secretion, insulin action or both (Teixeira et al., 2000). Overt diabetes affects 2–3% of the total world population (Felig and Bergman, 1995). In conventional therapy, Type I diabetes is treated with exogenous insulin and Type 2 with oral hy- poglycaemic agents (sulphonylureas, biguanides etc) (Felig and Bergman, 1995; Rosak, 2002). However, for a number of reasons, complementary medicine has grown in popularity in recent years, in both poor and rich countries (Elisabetsky, 1987). Surveys conducted in Australia and the United States Abbreviations: STZ, streptozotocin; DEJT, diabetic Eugenia jambolana- treated; DC, diabetic control; DIT, diabetic insulin-treated ∗ Corresponding author. Tel.: +55 16 201 6546; fax: +55 16 232 0486. E-mail address: pepatomt@fcfar.unesp.br (M.T. Pepato). indicated that, respectively, 48.5 and 34% of respondents had used at least one form of unconventional therapy, including herbal medicine (Eisenberg et al., 1993; Maclennan et al., 1996). In Brazil, it is evident that treatment of illness with plant infusions and decoctions is common practice, despite the lack of any precise statistics on the matter. Among the plants popularly used for this purpose, Eu- genia jambolana Lam. (syn: Syzygium cumini Skeels and sometimes called Syzygium jambolanum DC), is originally a Southeast Asian tree of the myrtle family (Myrtaceae), known as ‘jambol˜ ao’ in Brazil and Jambolan or Java plum in English. In several studies of the seeds or fruit of this tree, in which various methods were used to prepare the medicine and administer it to normal and diabetic animals, the following effects were observed: reduction of glycaemia and glycosuria, anti-oxidant activity and partial restora- tion of altered liver and skeletal muscle glycogen content and liver glucokinase, hexokinase, glucose-6-phosphate and 0378-8741/$ – see front matter © 2004 Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved. doi:10.1016/j.jep.2004.07.029