Antihyperglycemic effects of total ginsenosides from leaves and stem of Panax ginseng

Abstract

Aim: The antihyperglycemic effects of the total ginsenosides in Chinese ginseng (TGCG), extracted from leaves and the stem, were evaluated in diabetic C57BL/6J ob/ob mice. Methods: Animals received daily intraperitoneal injections of TGCG (100 and 200 mg/kg) or oral administration (150 and 300 mg/kg) for 12 d. Fasting blood glucose levels and body weight were measured after fasting the animals for 4 h. Peripheral glucose use was also measured using an intraperitoneal glucose tolerance test. Results: In the injection group, a high dose of TGCG (200 mg/kg) significantly lowered the fasting blood glucose levels in ob/ob mice on d 12 (153 ± 16 mg/dL vs 203±9.8 mg/dL, P<0.01, compared to vehicle‐treated group). In the oral group, blood glucose decreased notably with a dose of TGCG (300 mg/kg) on d 12 (169.1±12.6 mg/dL vs211.6±13.8 mg/dL, P<0.05, compared to the vehicle‐treated group). Glucose tolerance was also improved markedly in ob/ob mice. Furthermore, a significant reduction in bodyweight (P<0.05) was observed after 12 d of TGCG (300 mg/kg) treatment in mice from the oral group. Conclusion: The results indicated that in a diabetic ob/ob mouse model TGCG was endowed with significant anti‐hyperglycemic and anti‐obesity properties. Therefore, the total ginsenosides extracted from Chinese ginseng leaves and the stem may have some potential for treating diabetes.

Ginsenoside Rb1 stimulates glucose uptake through insulin-like signaling pathway in 3T3-L1 adipocytes

“…Previous studies have shown that ginseng was able to reduce blood glucose level in type 2 diabetes patients (Vuksan et al 2008), normal people (Reay et al 2006), and diabetic mice (Attele et al 2002, Xie et al 2005c. Because glucose uptake in target tissues is a critical step in maintaining glucose homeostasis and in clearing the postprandial glucose load (Herman & Kahn 2006), our results may explain partially the mechanism of ginseng's hypoglycemic effects.…”

Functional Analysis of 3-Hydroxy-3-Methylglutaryl Coenzyme A Reductase Encoding Genes in Triterpene Saponin-Producing Ginseng

“…(Shi et al, 2010). Among them, more than 40 ginsenosides have been isolated and identified from white and red ginseng from ginseng, showing different biological activities based on their structural differences (Gillis, 1997;Fuzzati, 2004;Xie et al, 2005;Lü et al, 2009;Tung et al, 2009).…”

The antidiabetic effect of ginsenoside Rb2 via activation of AMPK

“…The main findings were that PPD played a more important role in the inhibitory activity against lipase in vitro, while PPT had almost no inhibition effects (Liu et al, 2010). Also, numerous investigations have determined that the activities of ginsenosides are related to the types of aglycones and glycosides and the number of sugars linked to the core structure (Xie et al, 2005).…”