Anti-diabetic Properties of the Aqueous Leaf Extract of Bougainvillea glabra (Glory of the Garden) on Alloxan-Induced Diabetic Rats

The antidiabetic and antilipidemic effects of Bougainvillea glabra was investigated in this study using 25 male wistar rats. The rats were divided into 5 groups comprising of five animals each. These groups include a normal control (administered saline), an extract control (administered 100 mg/kg of extract) and a diabetic control (untreated group). The remaining two groups were administered 100mg/kg and 400 mg/kg of the extract respectively. The study lasted for three weeks although blood samples were obtained from the rat tails after every week. The results show that the extract significantly (p< 0.05) reduced the hyperglycaemia from 12±0.40 mmol/L (Diabetic Control) to 4.04±0.03 mmol/L (400 mg/kg group). Likewise, the extract significantly reduced the Total Cholesterol (TC), Triglyceride (TG) and Low-Density Lipoprotein Cholesterol (LDL-Cholesterol), while increasing the High-Density Lipoprotein Cholesterol (HDL-C). In conclusion, the observations from this study show that Bougainvillea glabra has antidiabetic effect  and beneficial effects on blood lipid profile, thus justifying the use of the plant by traditional medicine practitioners for the treatment of diabetes mellitus.