Tropical Journal of Pharmaceutical Research

Original Research Article | OPEN ACCESS

Effect and safety of combined Gegen Qinlian decoction/metformin in the treatment of diabetes mellitus in patients, and its influence on serum C peptide and glycosylated hemoglobin

Jie Chen, Yi Xu, Yan Zhao, Geling Liu, Jia Cui, Yan Li, Weijuan Li

Ward 1, Department of Endocrinology, Tangshan Gongren Hospital, Tangshan City 063000, Hebei Province, China;

For correspondence:- Weijuan Li Email: wr7ly7@163.com

Accepted: 3 May 2022 Published: 31 May 2022

Citation: Chen J, Xu Y, Zhao Y, Liu G, Cui J, Li Y, et al. Effect and safety of combined Gegen Qinlian decoction/metformin in the treatment of diabetes mellitus in patients, and its influence on serum C peptide and glycosylated hemoglobin. Trop J Pharm Res 2022; 21(5):1055-1060 doi: 10.4314/tjpr.v21i5.20

© 2022 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 investigate the clinical efficacy and safety of combined Gegen Qinlian decoction/metformin in the treatment of diabetes mellitus (DM), and its influence on serum C peptide and glycosylated hemoglobin (HbAlc).

Methods: One hundred and eighty-six DM patients who received treatment in Tangshan Gongren Hospital, Tangshan City, China from July 2018 to November 2019 were randomly assigned to group X (n = 93) and group Y (n = 93). Group Y was given metformin, while X received a combination of Gegen Qinlian decoction and metformin. Total effectiveness, incidence of adverse reactions, blood glucose, TCM syndrome scores, as well as serum C peptide and HbAlc were determined and compared between the two groups.

Results: Compared with group Y, group X had significantly higher treatment effectiveness (p < 0.05), lower incidence of adverse reactions (p < 0.05), significantly lower levels of blood glucose and TCM syndrome score after treatment (p < 0.001), but significantly higher serum C-peptide levels (p < 0.001) and lower levels of HbAlc.

Conclusion: the combination of Gegen Qinlian decoction and metformin produces a good anti-diabetic efficacy, with a lower incidence of adverse reactions in patients. Therefore, the combined therapy has potentials for application in clinical practice, but further clinical trials are required.

Keywords: Serum C peptide, Glycosylated hemoglobin (HbAlc), Gegen Qinlian Decoction