Abstract

Experimental study was carried out to investigate the blood glucose lowering effect of Nigella sativa  in alloxan induced diabetic rats.Forty male Wistar albino rats were selected according to inclusion and exclusion criteria. Animals were kept in separate stainless steel cages at normal temperature, 12 hour dark-light cycle and free access to chow and water. Forty rats were divided into four groups as ; Group A: control (n=10), Group B: diabetic (alloxan treated control) (n=10), Group C: diabetic treated with Nigella sativa (n=10), Group D: diabetics treated with Glimepiride (n=10). Diabetes mellitus was induced by single intraperitoneal injection of Alloxan (Sigma Company) at the dose of 120mg/kg.  Blood samples were taken on days 0, 7 and  14.  Glimepiride was given orally at the dose of 0.1mg/kg and Nigella sativa at the dose of 50g/kg. Data was analyzed on SPSS version 21.0. The continuous variables were analyzed by ANOVA with post Hoc Tukey-Cramer. The significant p-value was taken at ≤ 0.05. Significant differences were observed for blood glucose among groups on different days. The blood glucose  was low in Nigella sativa compared with alloxan (p=0.001), however , it was more compared to glimepiride group (p=0.001). The finding suggests that the Nigella sativa lowers blood glucose. The blood glucose lowering effect of Nigella sativa was inferior to glimepiride  but it was observed. The blood glucose as high as ≥350mg/dl was noted in Alloxan group on days 7 and 14 (p=0.0001).