Pharmacologyonline 2: 787795 (2009) Syiem et al. 787 EFFECTS OF POTETILLA FULGES LI. O CARBOHYDRATE AD LIPID PROFILES I DIABETIC MICE D. Syiem ∗ , P.Z. Khup, A.B. Syiem *Department of Biochemistry, orthEastern Hill University, Shillong793022, Meghalaya. Summary The effects on carbohydrate and lipid profiles of the antidiabetic plant,   Linn. (Rosaceae), were evaluated in alloxaninduced diabetic mice. The methanol extract of   at the optimized dose of 250 mg/kg b.w. was administered to diabetic mice on alternate days for a period of one week. On the eighth day, blood samples were collected for the estimation of cholesterol, triglyceride and HDL cholesterol levels and the animals sacrificed for the assay of the glycolytic enzymes  glucokinase and hexokinase. The effects were compared against the standard drugs metformin, glibenclamide and insulin. It was found that   treatment reduced the serum cholesterol and triglyceride levels while selectively increasing hepatic hexokinase activity. It can therefore be concluded that   extract exerts antihyperlipidemic effect and improves hexokinase activity in diabetic mice in a tissue specific manner. Key words:  , antihyperlipidemic, glycolytic enzymes, metformin, glibenclamide, insulin. Introduction Diabetes is a heterogeneous group of metabolic disorders which is increasing in prevalence [1]. Physiologically it is characterized by the deficiency in insulin or insulin activity and clinically by hyperglycemia or impaired glucose tolerance and other manifestable disorders [2, 3]. Prolonged diabetes also leads to micro and macrovascular complications [4] as well as the development of lipoprotein abnormalities [5]. In the last decade more than a thousand traditional plants used for treating diabetes mellitus have been recorded, but only some of these have received scientific and medical evaluation [6, 7, 8, 9]. Many of these plants possessing antidiabetic property are also reported to exhibit hypolipidemic activity [10, 11, 12]. Hexokinase and Glucokinase, key glycolytic enzymes which bring about the first phosphorylating steps of glucose metabolism are reduced significantly under diabetic condition [13] but are improved by some of these plants which function via extrapancreatic mechanism similar to the drug metformin [14,15]. Other plants like   [16] and leaf of   [17] are insulin secretagogues involving the pancreas an effect similar to the hypoglycemic drug, glibenclamide [18]. The mechanism of action for some of these active principles has been described [19]. Further, the presence of insulin mimetics and insulinlike molecules has also been reported [20]. ∗ Corresponding author: dsyiem@yahoo.com