Trop J Nat Prod Res, March 2019; 3(3):91-94 ISSN 2616-0684 (Print) ISSN 2616-0692 (Electronic) 91 © 2019 the authors. This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License Tropical Journal of Natural Product Research Available online at https://www.tjnpr.org Original Research Article Antidiabetic Activity of Pistia strateotes L.Aqueous Extract in Alloxan-induced Diabetic Rats Mudassir Lawal 1 , Abdulaziz Suleiman 1 , Nasiruddin U. Matazu 1 , Fatima A. Dawud 2 , Aminu Mohammed 3 , Ismaila A. Umar 1,3 * 1 Department of Biochemistry, Umaru Musa Yar’adua University, Katsina, Nigeria. 2 Department of Human Physiology, Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria, Nigeria. 3 Department of Biochemistry, Faculty of Life Sciences, Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria, Nigeria. Introduction Diabetes mellitus (DM) is a metabolic disorder characterized by chronic hyperglycaemia with multiple etiological complications and is associated with alterations in the metabolisms of carbohydrate, fat and protein. 1 The alterations in the utilization of complex biomolecules by the most affected tissues (liver, muscle and adipose tissue) due to hyperglycemia initiate a sequence of oxidative processes that cause dysfunction and failure of other organs in the body. Long-term complications may affect the organs such as kidneys, eyes, nerves, heart and blood vessels, and in absence of effective treatment result into death. 2 Recent information showed the global prevalence of DM to be 415 million people and is estimated to double by 2040. 3 This placed DM as a global public health challengeand thus, requires anintegrated approach to fully come up with the best treatment. 4 Generally, the two major types of DMare the type 1 or insulin dependent diabetes mellitus (IDDM) and type 2 or non-insulin dependent diabetes mellitus (NIDDM). 5 The present conventional drugs (sulphonylureas, glucosidase inhibitors, dipeptidyl peptidase-4 (DPP-4) inhibitors and biguanide) are known to present with unwanted *Corresponding author. E mail: iaumar2003@yahoo.co.uk Tel: +2348162060162 Citation: Lawal M, Suleiman A, Matazu NU, Dawud FA, Mohammed A, Umar IA. Antidiabetic Activity of Pistia strateotes L. Aqueous Extract in Alloxan-induced Diabetic Rats. Trop J Nat Prod Res. 2019; 3(3):91-94. doi.org/10.26538/tjnpr/v3i3.5 Official Journal of Natural Product Research Group, Faculty of Pharmacy, University of Benin, Benin City, Nigeria. adverse consequences such as aggressive hypoglycaemia, diarrhea and stomach discomfort. 6 This is in addition to being rather costly and not affordable by the majority of people in developing countries especially for African populations. For this reason, coupled with an exponential increase in the prevalence of diabetes motivate researchers to scientifically validate the folkloric use of a number of medicinal plants and/or their isolated bioactive compounds as possible alternative therapies for diabetes. The prime target for such research is to pave the way for the development of newer plant-derived antidiabetic compounds that could be used to ameliorate the diabetes associated complications. This can subsequently be standardized and be used as drug for the treatment of the DM. In this regard, several studies are ongoing to discover plant-derived extracts or active ingredients with antidiabetic potential, since fewer side effects were reported for the use of plant-derived products in treatment of various diseased. 7 Pistia stratiotes (Family, Araceae) is commonly known as water lettuce and as “Kainuwa” in Hausa. It floats on the surface of the water with its hanging roots submersed beneath floating leaves. The leaves are pale-green of about 10-20 cm long and 10 cm wide, spathulate to obovate with a rounded to truncate apex withthe lower surface covered with whitish hairs. Inflorescence is axillary, solitary, spathulate with a single pistillate flower at base, and 2-8 staminate flowers above. Flowers are unisexual, staminate with two stamens, pistillate with unilocular ovary having numerous, ovules, a slender style and penicillate stigma, the fruit with many thin seeds. 8 P. stratiotes plant extracts have been shown to contain various alkaloids, glycosides, flavonoids and phytosterols. 9 It has been used traditionally in the treatment of various diseases such as diabetes, eczema, leprosy, ulcers, piles, stomach disorder, throat and mouth inflammation, to mention a few. 10 Previous studies have shown that various extracts from P. stratiotes possessed anti-inflammatory, 11 antioxidant, 12 ARTICLE INFO ABSTRACT Article history: Received 11 March 2019 Revised 27 March 2019 Accepted 28 March 2019 Published online 04 April 2019 Pistia strateotes L. (Araceae) commonly known as water lettuce is used traditionally for the treatment of diabetes mellitus in Nigeria. The present study was designed to validate these antidiabetic claims in alloxan-induced diabetic rats. Wister rats (weighing 150-200g) were divided into five groups of seven animals each, three of which were made diabetic by intraperitoneal injection of alloxan monohydrate (160 mg/kg body weight). All rats in the diabetic groups had initial fasting blood glucose (FBG) levels ≥200 mg/dL, but after treatment for three weeks with extract or glibenclamide (0.08 mg/kg body weight), the FBG significantly (p<0.05) reduced by 68.6 and 60.6%, respectively. Diabetes also caused a significant (p<0.05) elevationof serum total cholesterol (TC), triacylglycerols (TG) and low-density lipoproteins (LDL) and reduction of high-density lipoprotein (HDL)-cholesterol Treatment with P. strateotes extract (p<0.05) reverted these alterations to near normal. The serum levels of urea, creatinine, alanine transaminase (ALT), aspartate transaminase (AST), total and direct bilirubin were significantly increased above normal in untreated diabetic rats; treatment significantly (p<0.05) prevented these elevations. It is concluded that the aqueous extract of P. strateotes possesses antihyperglycaemic and hypolipidemic effects and ameliorated hepatic and renal alterations in alloxan-induced diabetic rats. Keywords: Antidiabetic, Pistia strateotes, Diabetes, Rats. Copyright: © 2019 Lawal et al. This is an open- access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.