Authors : S. Ahmed, M. A. Awal , M. M. Rahman and M. Mostofa
Abstract: Comparative efficacy of neem and karela with insulin and glibenclamide was studied on some lipid profile(total cholesterol, triglyceride, HDL cholesterol and LDL cholesterol) in 40 rabbits from February to April, 2003. Rabbits were randomly divided into 8 equal groups and rabbits of group A and B were kept as non hyperglycemic control and hyperglycemic control respectively. Hyperglycemia was induced in 7 groups of rabbits (B, C, D, E, F, G and H) by administering alloxan at a dose of 200 mg/ kg body wt. s/c. After 15 days of alloxan injection, 6 groups of rabbits (C, D, E, F, G and H) were treated with insulin, glibenclamide, neem seed kernel powder (NP), neem seed oil (NSO), neem leaf extract (NLE) and karela fruit juice (KFJ) at the dose rate of 5 U/kg, 0.5 mg/ kg., 500 mg/kg , 1 ml/kg , 500 mg/ kg and 100 mg/kg body weight respectively for consecutive 28 days. All the control and treated rabbits were closely observed during pre-treatment, 28 days of treatment and also for 14 days of post-treatment period and the lipid profile was investigated. Due to alloxan induced diabetes the content of total cholesterol increased significantly (P<0.01) in all groups except the normal control group A. On 28th day of treatment period the amount of total cholesterol, serum triglyceride, HDL cholesterol and LDL cholesterol were significantly(P<0.01) reduced to extent of 15-30%, 15-46%, 15-25% and 16-32% respectively that were close to the initial value before the commencement of dosing(day 0) except with KFJ which had very little effect(15%). Glibenclamide reduced the triglyceride level to a greater extent (46%) than other drugs. Insulin and glibenclamide showed similar efficacy (25%) in reduction of the serum HDL cholesterol level and (31-32%) in LDL cholesterol level. It was observed that patent drugs insulin and glibenclamide induced better and almost equal efficacy in reducing the parameters whereas herbal preparations of neem, i.e., NP, NSO and NLE showed almost equal but less efficacy than two patent drugs and Karela fruit juice was found to be least effective. It may be concluded that instead of less efficacy than patent drugs, the efficacy of neem and karela was also encouraging.
Ahmed, S. , M. A. Awal , M. M. Rahman and M. Mostofa , 2005. Comparative Efficacy of Neem and Karela with Insulin and Glibenclamide on Lipid Profile in Rabbit (Oryctolagus cuniculus) . Journal of Animal and Veterinary Advances, 4: 103-106.