Biochemistry & Analytical Biochemistry 1 Biochem Anal Biochem, Vol. 10 Iss. 7 No: 1000397 OPEN ACCESS Freely available online Research Article Correspondence to: Dr. Rasidat Tijani, Department of Pharmaceutical Technology, Moshood Abiola Polytechnic, Abeokuta, Ogun State Nigeria, Tel: 08064570768; E-mail: mailrosheedah@gmail.com Received: June 17, 2021; Accepted: July 02, 2021; Published: July 09 2021 Citation: Copyright: © Tijani RO, 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. Anti-Diabetic Effect of Methanolic Extract of Aristolochia ringens Leaf Rasidat O Tijani * , Lawal SO, Oyekan JO, Koleoso OK, Onasanya SS, Fasasi AA Department of Pharmaceutical Technology, Moshood Abiola Polytechnic, Abeokuta, Ogun State, Nigeria ABSTRACT The aim and objective of this study is to investigate the hypoglycemic, hepatoprotective, hypolipidemic and antioxidant potentials of the methanolic extract of Aristolochia ringens leaf (MLAR) in STZ-induced diabetic wistar rats. The air- dried and powdered leaf of the plant (Aristolochia ringens) was extracted by cold maceration and concentrated. In vitro analysis was carried out by screening the extract for phytochemical constituents and antioxidant activities using different models. In vivo analysis was also carried out by randomly dividing forty eight (48) male wistar rats (140-170 g) into eight groups of six (6) rats each. Group 1 served as control; group 2 received STZ (60 mg/kg wt i.p); groups 3 to 8 served as the treatment group. The animals were sacrificed without anesthesia after 30 days and their blood were collected for biochemical investigation. The in vitro results showed that MLAR possesses good antioxidant potential when compared with the standard and it is also known to contain a number of phytochemicals. Also, the administration of STZ caused significant (p<0.05) elevation of the serum level of glucose, ALT AST, GGT, ALP, total cholesterol, LDL, TRIGS, MDA, NO and MPO activity by 100%, 47%, 38%, 32%, 51%, 29%, 34%, 41%, 51%, 29%, 54% and 59% respectively and significant reduction in HDL, Catalase, GPx, GSH, SOD, GST and plasma insulin by 34%, 34%, 61%, 46%, 66%, 55% and 52% respectively, but supplementation with MLAR brought all these parameters close to normal. In conclusion, Aristolochia ringens may be used as a prophylactic and an alternative medicine in the treatment of diabetes mellitus as it was established in this study that it possesses antioxidant, anti- inflammatory, hypolipidemic and hypoglycemic effects which may be due to the presence of phytochemicals in it. Keywords: Aristolochic acid; Lipid peroxidation; Streptozotocin; Diabetes INTRODUCTION Diabetes Mellitus (DM) is a metabolic disorder of multiple etiologies characterized by chronic hyperglycemia with disturbances of carbohydrate, fat and protein metabolism resulting from defects in insulin secretion and/or insulin action (W. H. O., 2019). There are basically two types of diabetes mellitus: type 1 and type 2 diabetes mellitus. Type 1 diabetes mellitus, an autoimmune disease, is characterized by the loss of pancreatic β-cells resulting in absolute insulin deficiency. It accounts for about 5%-10% of all newly diagnosed diabetes mellitus Sundaram et al. [1]. On the other hand, type 2 diabetes mellitus is characterized by insulin resistance and β-cell dysfunction. It remains the most common form of diabetes mellitus and constitutes about 90-95 % of all diabetes cases Parral et al. [2]. The common signs and symptoms are excessive thirst and urination, weight loss or gain, fatigue and influenza–like symptoms. Early diabetes symptoms can be very mild and often even unnoticeable. Diabetes mellitus is one of the common metabolic disorders with micro and macro vascular complications that results in significant morbidity and mortality. It is considered as one of the five leading causes of death in the world Bhupesh et al. [3]. It was estimated in 2017 that type 2 diabetes accounts for 171 million of the total population and is likely to increase by 48% to 360 million by 2030 (I. D. F., 2017). Presently, there are six classes of available oral antidiabetic drugs in use for the management of diabetes which includes biguanides (metformin), sulfonylureas (glimepiride), meglitinides (repaglinide), thiazolidinediones (pioglitazone), dipeptidylpeptidase IV inhibitors (sitagliptin), and α-glucosidase inhibitors (acarbose) (Nathan, 2007). Apart from high cost of these drugs irrespective of their classes, they are not without one or two side effects, for example, the major side effect of sufonylureas is hypoglycemia while weight gain, headache, dizziness, hypersensitivity reactions and nausea are minor side effects Chaudhury et al. [4]. Over the last few decades, there has been an increasing interest in the use of herbal medicine because medicinal plants have proved useful in the treatment of many diseases among which are inflammatory diseases and diabetes and they have little or no side effects. They provide considerable economic benefit to many rural and poor people who may not be able to afford the costly synthetic drugs. Medicinal plants are also sources for the development of Tijani RO, Lawal SO, Oyekan JO, Koleoso OK, Onasanya SS, Fasasi AA (2021) Anti-Diabetic Effect of Methanolic Extract of Aristolochia ringens Leaf. Biochem Anal Biochem. 10:397.