Hypoglycemic Potential of Cocoa Powder in Monosodium Glutamate-Diet Induced Diabetic Mice

Diabetes mellitus is a public health problem, one of the four priority non-communicable diseases (NCDs) targeted for actions by World leader. Historical documents from the 17th through mid-19th centuries contain numerous references to cocoa powder not primarily as a beverage, but as a prophylactic and therapeutic for a variety of ailments. Monosodium glutamate (MSG) enhances appetite and palatability of meals since it is been consumed as additives in most of our meal without caution, there is need to investigate if its overdose consumption can lead to diabetes which is a common ailment in our society nowadays. This study investigates the effect of cocoa powder on mice induced with diabetes using MSG the experiment was categorized into six groups ranging from mice fed with cocoa feed and those fed with MSG diet. The result showed significant increases in blood glucose level amongst those fed with MSG diets alone, thus suggested that MSG has the potential to induce elevation in blood glucose level thereby resulting to diabetes mellitus. Moreover, the result from this study showed that cocoa powder was able to cause reduction in blood glucose level in the MSG-induced diabetic mice. Therefore, it is no doubt that medicinal plants still play important role in the discovery of novel anti-diabetic compounds as in this case cocoa powder.