cellulose are unacceptable due to filming/picking and lamination/capping on compression combined with high friability. The formulation with povidone/croscarmellose sodium furnishes very hard granules with uneven particle size resulting in inferior mass uniformity and rather slow disintegration. Moreover, this formulation exhibits appreci- able loss in potency on storage (Table 3). By contrast, the starch pregelatinized formulation furnishes tablets with ex- cellent technical properties. References Gu L, Strickley RG (1987) Diketopiperazine formation, hydrolysis, and epimerization of the new dipeptide angiotensin-converting enzyme inhi- bitor RS-10085. Pharm Res 4: 392–397 Gu L, Strickley RG, Chi LH, Chowhan ZT (1990) Drug-excipient incom- patibility studies of the dipeptide angiotensin-converting enzyme inhibi- tor moexipril hydrochloride – dry powder vs wet granulation. Pharm Res 7: 379–383 Department of Pharmacognosy and Phytochemistry, Faculty of Phar- macy, Jamia Hamdard (Hamdard University), Hamdard Nagar, New Delhi, India Effect of Aralia cachemirica Decne root extracts on blood glucose level in normal and glucose loaded rats Z. A. Bhat, S. H. Ansari, H. M. Mukhtar, T. Naved, J. I. Siddiqui, N. A. Khan Received February 23, 2005, accepted March 31, 2005 S. H. Ansari, Department of Pharmacognosy & Phyto- chemistry, Faculty of Pharmacy, Jamia Hamdard (Ham- dard University), Hamdard Nagar, New Delhi-110062, India shansari189@rediffmail.com Pharmazie 60: 712 – 713 (2005) An aqueous and alcoholic extract of the roots of Aralia cachemirica (Araliaceae) were evaluated for hypoglyce- mic activity in normal fasted and glucose induced hy- perglycemic rats. The aqueous and alcoholic extracts at a dose of 250 mg/kg showed statistically significant (p < 0.01) hypoglycemic activity in glucose loaded ani- mals however no effect was observed in normal fasted rats. Aralia cachemirica (Araliaceae), a lax shrubby herb, 1 to 3 m tall, is found distributed in temperate Himalayas from Kashmir to Sikkim at 2100 to 4000 m altitude (Asolkar et al. 1992). It is known that most of the members in Ara- liaceae family have high molecular weight polysaccharides (glycans) stored in their roots and many medicinal proper- ties including hypoglycemic activity of these drugs are attributed to these glycans (Tomoda et al. 1985; Fang et al. 1985; Tomoda et al. 1984; Divakar and Bensita 2000). Many Aralia species and their isolated constituents show remarkable hypoglycemic activity (Yoshikawa et al. 1996; Martinez and Staba 1984; Yoshikawa et al. 1995). On these basis it was found worthwhile to investigate this plant for hypoglycemic activity. The fol- lowing phytoconstituents have already been isolated from the plant: octadec-6-enoic acid, 8- primara-14,15-diene-19- oic acid, aralosides A&B (George et al. 1984) Nonane, a hexacosane derivative, petroselinic acid, stigmasterol and b-sitosterol. Anti-inflammatory activity of this plant has also been reported (Asolkar et al. 1992). The hypoglycemic activity of A. cachemirica was evalu- ated in this study. Both the aqueous as well as the alcoholic extracts showed statistically significant effects (p < 0.01) in glucose induced hyperglycemic rats (table) against a control group. However no hypoglycemic ac- tivity was observed in normal fasted rats (data not shown). The results indicate that the roots of Aralia cachemirica possess statistically significant hypoglycemic activity and also suggest that the hypoglycemic constituents are pre- sent both in aqueous as well as alcoholic extracts. Further studies are in progress to identify the components respon- sible for hypoglycemic activity. SHORT COMMUNICATIONS 712 Pharmazie 60 (2005) 9