January 2012
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Journal of Diabetes Mellitus
The leaf of Psidium guava is traditionally used in Asia to manage, control and treat diabetes. We designed this study to elucidate the effect of the administration of oral doses of aqueous and ethanol extract from Psidium guava leaves on plasma glucose, lipid profiles and the sensitivity of the vascular mesenteric bed to Phenylephrine in diabetic and non diabetic rats. Animals were divided into 5 groups (n = 10): two groups ser-ved as non-diabetic controls (NDC), while the other groups had diabetes induced with a single injection of streptozotocin (STZ). Psidium guava-treated chronic diabetic (PSG-CD) and Psidium guava-treated controls (PSG-C) received 1 g/l of Psidium guava added to the drinking water for 8 weeks. The mesenteric vascular beds were pre-pared using the McGregor method. Administra-tion of Psidium guava caused Ca/Mg ratio, plasma glucose, high density lipoprotein (HDL), low density lipoprotein (LDL), very low density lipoprotein (VLDL), total cholesterol and triglyc-eride concentrations to return to normal levels, and was shown to decrease alteration in vascu-lar reactivity to vasoconstrictor agents. Our re-sults support the hypothesis that Psidium guava could play a role in the management of diabetes and the prevention of vascular complications in STZ-induced diabetic rats.