Abstract

PROMISING BIOPHARMACEUTICAL USE OF SILYMARIN AND SILIBININ AS ANTIDIABETIC NATURAL AGENTS IN STREPTOZOTOCIN-INDUCED DIABETIC RATS: FIRST COMPARATIVE ASSESSMENT

Mohamed El-Far*, Amr Negm and Mona Wahdan

ABSTRACT

Silymarin (Sly) and Silibinin (Slb) exert beneficial health effects to ameliorate diabetes mellitus. The presented study was carried out and aimed to show a comparative assessment and difference(s) between orally administration of (Sly) and (Slb) as hypoglycemic, antioxidant and hypolipidemic agents in streptozotocin-diabetic rats as a diabetes mellitus model. The rats were rendered diabetic by intraperitoneal injection of freshly prepared solution of STZ (60 mg/kg body weight). The rats were randomly allocated and similarly grouped into five groups: control, Sly-treated control, diabetic, Sly-treated diabetic and Slb-treated diabetic groups. One week after diabetes induction, rats received orally Silymarin or Silibinin (75 mg/kg body weight) for two weeks. Serum glucose, Glycosylated haemoglobin (HbA1c), serum insulin, serum triglycerides, total cholesterol, HDL- and LDL-cholesterol levels, hepatic malondialdehyde levels (MDA), hepatic glutathione (GSH) content and superoxide dismutase (SOD) activity were spectrophotometrically measured. After Silymarin and Silibinin treatment of STZ-diabetic rats, a significant improvement of glucose level, insulin level, lipid profile, SOD activity, GSH content and decreased MDA as lipid peroxidation biomarkers were recorded. In addition, (Sly) and (Slb) stimulated insulin secretion from β-pancreatic cells of rats. Therefore, the hypoglycemic action of both Silymarin and Silibinin may be attributed to their stimulation of β-cells for insulin secretion and also to their ability to augment and restore antioxidant properties. Both agents (Sly) and (Slb) found to give similar effects on studied biochemical parameters under investigation. Our results showed –for the first time- that both agents Silymarin and Silibinin might be considered as potential adjuvant not only for prevention but also for treatment of diabetes. We showed that both Silymarin and Silibinin can produce the same therapeutic effects; this is a novel finding which indicate possible use of Silibinin clinically in treatment of diabetes.

Keywords: Silymarin, Silibinin, Diabetes, Antidiabetic agents, Antioxidants, Insulin, STZ.