Effect of hydroalcoholic Allium ampeloprasum extract on oxidative stress, diabetes mellitus and dyslipidemia in alloxan-induced diabetic rats

Allium ampeloprasum (AA) is a medicinal plant which is used in Iranian traditional medicine to treat or prevent different diseases. The aim of this study is to investigate the effect of AA extract on oxidative stress and dyslipidemia in diabetic rats induced by alloxan. In this experimental study, 60 male Wistar rats weighing 200-250 gr were randomly divided to five groups of 12 each including healthy control (group I), diabetic control (group II), metformin-treated diabetic positive control (group III) and two groups treated with doses 400 (group IV) and 800 (group V) mg/kg/BW of AA extracts. Diabetes mellitus was experimentally induced by injection of two doses of alloxan-120 and 65 mg/kg-within two consecutive days. Alloxan-induced diabetes caused significant increase in serum glucose, triglyceride (TG), total cholesterol (TC), low density lipoprotein (LDL), very low density lipoprotein (VLDL) and high density lipoprotein (HDL) levels in group II (p < 0.05). Furthermore, serum malondialdehyde (MDA) levels increased significantly and liver catalase activity decreased significantly in the 2nd group compared to 1st control; respectively p = 0.0001 and p = 0.009. In the group IV has seen a significant decrease in serum TG (p = 0.01), TC (p = 0.0001), VLDL (p = 0.01), and MDA (p = 0.0001) levels and significant increase in the liver and kidney catalase activities of the rats compared to the group II; respectively p = 0.0001 and p = 0.0001. In Conclusion our results highlight potentially relevant health beneficial effects of AA extract which exerts hypoglycemic, hypolipidemic, and anti-oxidative stress effects in rats with alloxan-induced diabetes. Therefore, it may be considered as useful dietary supplements in diabetic patients.