African Journal of Biotechnology Vol. 6 (8), pp. 1028-1030, 16 April 2007   

ISSN 1684–5315 © 2007 Academic Journals        

Short Communication

Prevention of the onset of hyperglycaemia by extracts of Aloe barbadensis in rabbits treated with alloxan

Afolabi C. Akinmoladun¹* and Oluyemi Akinloye²

¹Department of Biochemistry, Federal University of Technology, Akure, Nigeria.

²Department of Biomedical Sciences, College of Health Sciences, Ladoke Akintola University of Technology, Oshogbo, Nigeria.

*Corresponding authors E-mail: akinmoladunfc@yahoo.com. Tel: +234 80 3444 5893.

Accepted 25 January, 2007

The ability of a home-made aqueous extract of Aloe barbadensis to prevent the onset of alloxan-induced hyperglycaemia was examined and compared with that of a factory-produced gel. Three groups of animals were administered 200 mg/kg body weight of alloxan intraperitoneally. A fourth group of animals was left uninjected.  Animals in group 2 also received a uniform administration of 1 mg/ml twice daily oral intake of Aloe gel (the home-made extract) commenced at the same time the alloxan was administered and continued thereafter for the next six days. Animals in group 3 were administered the factory-produced extract in a similar way as was done for animals in group 2. Plasma glucose levels at the end of the experiment were 142.50±6.28, 82.50±2.72, 88.17±1.92 and 94.17±1.51mg/dl for animals in groups 1, 2, 3 and 4, respectively. Alloxan administration possibly resulted in an increase of 51% in the plasma glucose level of animals in group 1 relative to animals in group 4 (p<0.05).  The results suggest that both the home-made and the factory-produced extracts prevented the onset of hyperglycaemia with the home-made extract appearing to be more potent.

Key words: Aloe barbadensis, alloxan, fasting plasma glucose, hyperglycaemia.