Background: Cinnamon has been widely used by Indonesian people as a complementary therapy to treat hyperglycemia such as in diabetes mellitus patients. While ginger is also used as a mixture in traditional anti hyperglycemia herb. There is not known how much antidiabetic effect of cinnamon ethanolic extract when combined with ginger, and not many studies have analyzed the correlation of lowering blood glucose levels associated with increasing of insulin of this combination.
Objectives: This study aimed to investigates antidiabetic activity of cinnamon extract, zingiber extract, and mixture on streptozotocin-induced diabetic rats.
Methods: This pharmacological study used Wistar strain male rats under hyperglycemia condition induced by streptozotocin at a dose of 45mg/kg. Sample were grouped with 6 animals in each where there was a positive and negative control group and also an intervention group given ethanol extract for 14 days.
Results: The result showed that all intervention groups experienced an increase in insulin levels and a decrease in blood glucose levels after 14 days. The One Way Anova test showed that the increase of insulin levels treated with combination of ethanolic extract cinnamon bark at the dose 150mg/200gr and ginger ethanolic extract at the dose 100mg/200gr was comparable to Glibenclamide (p=0.355), but the decrease in blood glucose levels between groups showed a difference that was not statistically significant. There was a relationship between insulin levels and blood glucose levels linearity with the equation Y (insulin level) = -5.261 + (-0.060) blood glucose level.
Conclusions: The combination of cinnamon and ginger showed beneficial synergistic anti-diabetic activity. It can increase insulin levels, making it possible to control blood sugar levels in high blood glucose conditions.