Summary

The Diabetes and hyperlipidaemia are one of  the major leading causes of deaths and debilitating disease in the world. The development of diabetic complications is a major cause of morbidity and mortality and is an ever-increasing burden to healthcare authorities in both developed and developing nations.  Monotheraputic treatment only have not be sufficient to control target levels of glucose and cholesterol, and combined drug therapy has found many advantages in treating  patients with uncontrollable glucose levels. However, over reduction of glucose levels has also been the result in the combined drug therapies which is a  major challenge to find novel combination of drugs which would result minimum side effects yielding highest efficacy .  Even though this is a big challenge in western medicine, traditional Ayuruvedic approaches always used combination of plants to achieve maximum benefits and have been experimented over thousands of years.  Proposed research is to mimic the Ayuruvedic concept and to identify the mixture of compounds that have been synergistically active in controlling diabetic and hyperlipidaemic conditions from a well-practiced Auruvedic remedy made out of  leaves of M. koenigii, cloves of A. sativum, fruit G. quaesita and seeds of P. nigrum.

Identification of the correct combination of bioactive compounds along with their mechanistic understanding,  will produce combined therapeutic drug leads which have the potential to be a therapeutic drug, would produce patentable results, new research collaboration with international pharmaceutical industries as well as bring the attention of foreign investors. In addition, scientific exploration of these remedies will popularize the traditional medicines and would result in more control of  these health problems. Training a post graduate student will also develop the capacity in resource persons in the scientific community.

Objectives

1. Screening of the hexane, ethyl acetate and methanol extracts of combined plant mixture of koenigii (leaves), A. sativum (fruits), G. quaesita (fruits) and P. nigrum (seeds) for the in-vivo and in-vitro anti-hyperglycemic and anti-hyperlipidaemic activities.
2. Activity guided fractionation of the highly active solvent extract of the plant mixture identified in objective 1 for anti-hyperglycemic and anti-hyperlipidaemic activities.
3. Isolation of active compounds from the selected active fraction of the solvent extract identified in objective 2.
4. Structure elucidation of active compounds by spectroscopic analysis.
5. Further studies of synergistic mechanisms of the active compounds.

Major Equipment Facilitated by Grant