Background: Diabetes mellitus as a metabolic disorder is characterized by hyperglycemia, dyslipidemia and deflection in protein metabolism. Natural products as a fashion remedy was undertaken and this study was designed to search the role of anise, fennel, thyme volatile oils and γ-terpinene (a bioactive constituent extracted from caraway and cumin volatile oils) to deal with the biochemical changes in sera, liver and muscle of streptozotcin (STZ)-induced diabetic rats.
Material and methods: Thirty rats (Sprague dawelly) were divided into three groups: control group; diabetic group, STZ-induced diabetic rats and diabetic & volatile oils group. The STZ-induced diabetic & volatile oil group was orally administered with different volatile oils by gavage (2 ml/ kg body weight) and subdivided into four subgroups: diabetic & anise; diabetic & fennel; diabetic & thyme and diabetic & γ- terpinene.
Results: There were highly significant increase in sera glucose, total lipids, total cholesterol, and triglycerides in diabetic rats. Liver and muscle malondialdehyde (MDA) and protein carbonyl (PC), superoxide dismutase, catalase and glutathione-s-transferase activities were remodeling after administration of different volatile oils. Sera insulin, liver glucose-6- phosphate dehydrogenase, liver and muscle glycogen was highly significantly decreased in diabetic rats. On the other hand, the alleviation in these parameters was highly noticed in the different diabetic & volatile oil subgroups.
Conclusion: The counter effects of different volatile oils upon these changes reflect the antihyperglycemia and antioxidant roles of these volatile oils with a different range in STZ- induced diabetic rats.