THE HYPOGLYCEMIC EFFECT OF SAFFRON PETALS’ IN DIABETIC RATS

Type 2 diabetes is one of the most important health problems around the globe and there are huge sums of money spent on its control. Various chemical and herbal substances have been applied to control blood sugar. In line with this, the present study evaluates the effect of saffron petals' hydroalcoholic extract on the fasting blood sugar and serum insulin in diabetic rats. In the present study, male Wistar rats (180 g to 220 g) were assigned to five groups (n=5): a normal control group, streptozotocin (60 mg/kg) diabetic control group and three diabetic groups that were administered with 100 mg/kg, 200 mg/kg and 300 mg/kg body weight saffron petal hydroalcoholic extract per day. After eight weeks since the initiation of the treatment, the fasting blood samples were collected from the rats' hearts to undergo fasting blood sugar and serum insulin measurements. The data were analyzed in SPSS, version 16. The serum level of fasting blood sugar in the diabetic groups that had been fed on 100 mg/kg and 200 mg/kg saffron petals extracts was found significantly reduced in contrast to the diabetic control group (P<0.01 and P<0.05, respectively). But, there was not found any significant difference between the diabetic group, treated with 300 mg/kg saffron petal hydroalcoholic extract, and the diabetic control group. In the case of insulin, all the three diabetic groups that had been administered with 100 mg/kg, 200 mg/kg and 300 mg/kg saffron petal hydroalcoholic extract showed significant increases in comparison to the diabetic control group (P<0.001, P<0.001 and P<0.05, respectively) . Our study indicated that saffron petal is capable of reducing the high level of fasting blood sugar and serum insulin and thus it can be prescribed as a hypoglycemic drug through performing further and more complete research.