Abstract

Dillenia excelsa is a relatively understudied plant with limited reports on its biological activities apart from its traditional use. Our aim was to investigate the blood glucose lowering effects and pancreatic islet regeneration in alloxan-induced Wistar rats following treatment with D. excelsa plant extract. Alloxan ablation of the pancreatic islets leads to a significant size reduction and loss of morphology of the islets. In this study, alloxan-induced diabetic animals were treated with D. excelsa extract at 250 and 500 mg/kg b.w. for a 12-week period. In another group, animals were treated with the plant extract for a period of 5 weeks prior to alloxan-induced damage to determine the protective effects of D. excelsa. An increase in the islet to tissue ratio was observed in alloxan-induced rats treated with 500 mg/ kg b.w. of extract at weeks 8 and 12 relative to control animals which was accompanied by a significant reduction in blood glucose levels. D. excelsa was also able to effectively prevent adverse damage of the pancreatic islets following a pretreatment period with the extract for a period of 5 weeks. Our findings indicate that the methanol extract of D. excelsa is capable of lowering blood glucose levels where one of the mechanisms of recovery is via the regeneration of pancreatic islets.

Key words: Dillenia excelsa; diabetes; pancreatic islet regeneration; anti diabetic; islet morphometry