The medicinal species Myracrodruon urundeuva Fr. All. presents antidiabetic and hypolipidemic properties, probably related to its antioxidant and anti-inflammatory actions

Abstract

The Type 2 diabetes (T2D) is a global epidemics and considered as an inflammation related disease. Myracrodruon urundeuva (Anacardiaceae) is used in Northeast Brazil, because of its anti-inflammatory properties. The species is known to present tannins and chalcones among its active compounds. The objectives of the work were to investigate the antidiabetic and hypolipidemic activities of the stem bark decoction (MUSB) from a cultivated specimen of M. urundeuva, in the alloxan-induced diabetes model. For that, male Wistar rats were divided into normal controls, untreated and treated (MUSB, 50 and 100 mg/kg, 7 days) diabetic groups. Afterwards, the animals were subjected to biochemical measurements (glycemia, cholesterol, triglycerides and ALT and AST liver transaminases) before (48 h, post-alloxan) and after treatments, then euthanized for histopathological studies. The data were analyzed by ANOVA and Tukey’s test and considered significant for p<0.05. We observed significant decreases in glycemia, cholesterol and triglycerides values. ALT and AST values were within normal ranges. The histopathological examination revealed changes of somehow less intensity in treated diabetic, relatively to diabetic animals without treatment. An interesting finding was the beta cell proliferation observed in diabetic pancreas after MUSB treatments. The antidiabetic and hypolipidemic effects are possibly related to the anti-inflammatory and antioxidant actions of MUSB. The regulation of beta cell mass, as a strategic target for T2D treatment, should estimulate translational studies dealing with the effects of M. urundeuva on beta cell proliferation.