Tropical Journal of Pharmaceutical Research

Original Research Article | OPEN ACCESS

Antidiabetic potential of Nigella sativa L seed oil in alloxan-induced diabetic rabbits

Muhammad Tahir Akhtar¹, Rahman Qadir¹, Iqra Bukhari², Rana Azeem Ashraf^1,3, Zoha Malik¹, Sadaf Zahoor¹, Mian Anjum Murtaza⁴, Farzana Siddique⁴, Syed Naseer Hussain Shah¹, Mubshara Saadia¹

¹Department of Chemistry, University of Sargodha, Sargodha; ²Allied Hospital, Faisalabad-38000, Pakistan; ³School of Pharmaceutical Science and Technology, Health Sciences Plate Form, Tianjin University, Tianjin, China; ⁴Institute of Food Science and Nutrition, University of Sargodha, Sargodha, Pakistan.

For correspondence:- Mubshara Saadia Email: Mubshara.saadia@uos.edu.pk

Accepted: 23 January 2020 Published: 29 February 2020

Citation: Akhtar MT, Qadir R, Bukhari I, Ashraf RA, Malik Z, Zahoor S, et al. Antidiabetic potential of Nigella sativa L seed oil in alloxan-induced diabetic rabbits. Trop J Pharm Res 2020; 19(2):283-289 doi: 10.4314/tjpr.v19i2.10

© 2020 The authors.
This is an Open Access article that uses a funding model which does not charge readers or their institutions for access and distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0) and the Budapest Open Access Initiative (http://www.budapestopenaccessinitiative.org/read), which permit unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly credited..

Abstract

Purpose: To evaluate the antidiabetic, hypolipidemic and antioxidant potential of seed oil of Nigella sativa L (NSO).

Methods: Nigella sativa seed oil (NSO) was extracted with Soxhlet apparatus using petroleum ether, and was given orally at a dose of 2.5 ml/kg body weight to alloxan-induced diabetic rabbits daily for 24 days. Biochemical parameters including total cholesterol (TC), triglycerides (TGs), low density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL), very low lipoprotein cholesterol (VLDL), high density lipoprotein (HDL) and plasma glucose were determined in the treatment and control groups. Furthermore, bilirubin, vitamin C, catalase and mean body weight were assessed.

Results: NSO treatment significantly lowered serum blood glucose levels and lipid contents, but increased the mean body weight, HDL-C and vitamin C levels of diabetic rabbits (p < 0.001). Moreover, NSO significantly decreased catalase activity, TC, TGs, LDL-C and VLDL-C levels, but normalized bilirubin levels in diabetic rabbits.

Conclusion: These results indicate that NSO possesses significant antidiabetic potential. Thus, it may be useful as an adjunct with antidiabetic medication but further studies are required to ascertain this.

Keywords: Black cumin, Diabetes, Hypoglycemic, Hypolipidemic, Antioxidants