Indian Journal of Experimental Biology Vol. 51, December 2013, pp. 1101-1108 Anti-diabetic effect of a combination of andrographolide-enriched extract of Andrographis paniculata (Burm f.) Nees and asiaticoside-enriched extract of Centella asiatica L. in high fructose-fat fed rats Agung Endro Nugroho 1 , Novena Yety Lindawati 1 , Kyky Herlyanti 1 , Lina Widyastuti 1 & Suwidjiyo Pramono 2 Department of 1 Pharmacology and Clinical Pharmacy, and 2 Pharmaceutical Biology, Faculty of Pharmacy, Universitas Gadjah Mada, Jogjakarta, Indonesia, 55281 Received 21 November 2012; revised 16 July 2013 Traditionally, a combination of medicinal plants is commonly used for lowering blood glucose in diabetic patients in order to provide additional benefits of the single drug. A. paniculata and C. asiatica are two traditional medicines form South Asian and Southeast Asain countries consumed by people for treating daibates mellitus and its complications. Hyperglycemia in the rats was stimulated by high fructose-fat diet that consists of 36% fructose, 15% lard, and 5% egg yolks in 0.36 g/200 g body weight for 70 days. The rats were orally administered with the combination of andrographolide- enriched extract of A. paniculata (AEEAP) leaves and asiaticoside-enriched extract of C. asiatica (AEECA) herbs from day 70 for 7 days. Antidiabetic activity was evaluated by estimating mainly the blood glucose levels and other parameters such as HDL, LDL, cholesterol and triglyceride. The results showed that combination at the ratio of 70:30 exhibited a promosing antidiabetic effect in high-fat-fructose-fed rat, and exhibited sinergistic effects on blood cholesterol and HDL levels. It can be concluded that its antidiabetic effect was better than that of single treatment of AEEAP or AEECA. That combination was also potential to develop as a blood glucose-lowering agent for diabetic patients. Keywords: Andrographis paniculata, Centella asiatica, Diabetes mellitus, Hyperlipidemia, High-fructose-fat diet Diabetes mellitus (DM) is a metabolic disorder associated with hyperglycemia, abnormalities in carbohydrate, fat and protein metabolism. Based on dependence on exogenous insulin, DM is classified into two types : type 1 DM and type 2 DM 1-3 . Type 1 DM, also named insulin-dependent diabetes mellitus (IDDM), is related to an absolute deficiency of insulin and stimulated by a destruction of pancreatic β cells due to autoimmune processes. Type 2 DM, non- insulin-dependent DM (NIDDM), is related to insulin resistance with compensatory. Uncontrolled type 2 DM can evolve into the type 1 DM so that the patients should consider the diet, lifestyle and oral hypoglycaemic drugs 3-5 . Increasing number of type 2 DM patients in developing countries is very high. Modern lifestyle with high-fat diet increases risk factor for type 2 DM 6 . Nutrient consumption patterns have been shifted from a healthy traditional food (high-fiber, low-fat, low- calorie diet) toward increasing consumption of high- calorie foods containing low fiber, high fats, red meats, and refined carbohydrates 7 . The uncontrolled condition can develop to be insulin resistance, a clinical condition of decrease in insulin potency to uptake glucose into cells. Insulin resistance is the early and main character of type 2 DM 8 . One approach for treating type 2 DM is the use of traditional medicine. To date, most medicinal plants in the form of single use has not shown satisfactory results. Therefore, the attemps to combine several antidiabetic drugs are being developed. Andrographis paniculata (Burm. f.) Nees is a original Indian plant growing widely to Southeast Asian countries including Indonesia, Malaysia and Thailand. The ethanolic extract of A. paniculata was reported to decrease the blood glucose levels in both streptozotocin (STZ)-diabetic rats and high fructose-fat fed rats 9,10 . The plant has insulin-releasing actions on BRIN-BD11 cells, a pancreatic β cell line expressing insulin and glucokinase 11 . The main active compound of the plant is andrographolide 12,13 . The compound also exhibited hypoglycaemic effects in STZ-diabetics rats obviously 14 . The compound increased the cellular uptake of glucose by increasing —————— *Correspondent author Telephone: (0274) 543120 Fax: (0274) 543120. E-mail: agungendronugroho@yahoo.com; nugroho_ae@ugm.ac.id