Hypoglycaemic Properties of Moringa oleifera Lam Seed Oil in Normoglycaemic Rats

Abstract

Almost 120 million people are currently suffer from diabetes mellitus globally and this figure is estimated to be doubled by the year 2025 (King et al., 1998). In reaction to this worldwide health confrontation, the WHO Expert Committee on diabetes mellitus suggested more evaluation of the folkloric methods of combating this disease in order to curb high death rate and morbidity that do occur from its complications as well as adverse effect connected with the use of modern antidiabetic drugs (Adeneye et al., 2006). In order to achieve this goal, the hypoglycaemic efficacies of several medicinal plants have been investigated. It has been generally observed that herbal formulations are more advantageous to modern therapy because of their low toxicity, easy accessibility, low cost and popularity. Oil therapy and aroma therapy are well known to have been used in the treatment of various diseases in ancient and modern practice. Oil therapy is now being employed in the treatment of several diseases including diabetes. The hypoglycaemic effects of several seeds oil have been investigated in animal model by different researchers. Such oil include Nigella sativa (Mohtashami et al., 2011), Walnut oil (Parivash et al., 2011), Coconut oil (Mahadevappa, Arunchand and Farhath, 2011), Picralima nitida (Calistus and Vincent, 2011), Garlic oil (Cheng-Tzu Liu et al., 2005). Moringa oleifera is the most popular among the 13 species of genus Moringa. It is commonly known by regional names as drumstick tree, kelor, murungai kaai, saijhan, benzolive among many names; it is a rapidly growing tree that is widely cultivated and has now become naturalized in Afghanistan, Florida and East and West Africa (Paliwal et al., 2011).The aqueous extract of Moringa oleifera leaf was reported to exhibit hypoglycaemic and antidiabetic effect in normal and streptozotocin-induced sub, mild and severely diabetic rats (Jaiswal, Kumar, Kumar, Mehta and Watal, 2009). Having affirmed the uses of some oil as hypoglycemic agents, it is therefore worthwhile to evaluate the hypoglycaemic effect of M.oleifera oil because of some of its immense medicinal values.