Ratree Pranakhon, Patchareewan Pannangpetch, and Chantana Aromdee

pp. 405 - 410

Abstract

Agarwood leaf extract was found to possess antipyretic, laxative and antimicrobial activities. A trial of one diabetic
patient taking long term agarwood leaf tea was found to have blood glucose returned to normal. In this work, the effects of
methanol, water and hexane crude extracts of agarwood leaf on hyperglycemia in streptozotocin-induced diabetic rats were
investigated. Only methanol and water extracts at the dose of 1 g/kg body weight lowered the fasting blood glucose levels,
54 and 40%, respectively. The results were comparable to 4 U/kg body weight of insulin (73%). In in vitro experiment, the
effect of the methanol and water extracts at the concentration of 10 µg/mL enhanced glucose uptake activity on rat
adipocytes by 172±10 and 176±21% of the control, respectively. The glucose uptake enhancement activity is comparable to
1.5 nM insulin (166±16%). The thin-layer chromatographic characteristics of all extracts were documented. The findings
suggest that agarwood leaf is a promising potential antidiabetic agent.