Homoeopathic management of diabetes by Vaccinium myrtillus

Recently a study has been done to define this therapeutic action by administering Vaccinium myrtillus orally to streptozotocin induced diabetic rats for 4 days. It has been witnessed that plasma glucose consistently dropped by 26% at two differently stages of diabetes. Plasma triglyceride (TG) were also reduced by 39%. Subsequent to the latter observation, possible lipid-lowering properties of the extract were investigated on other models of hyperlipidaemia and ciprofibrate, a well-established hypolipidaemic drug, was used as a reference compound. Both drug reduced TG levels of rats on hyperlipidaemic diet in a dose-dependent fashion. When administered at single doses over the same experimental period, Vaccinium myrtillus and ciprofibrate were effective in lowering TG concentrations in ethanol-treated normolipidaemic animals and in genetically hyperlipidaemic Yoshida rats. Unlike ciprofibrate, however, this drug failed to prevent the rise in plasma TG elicited by fructose and did not affect free fatty acid levels in any of the above experimental conditions. In rats treated with Triton WR-1339, blueberry feeding induced an hypolipidaemic activity one hour after injection but proved to be ineffective at later time points, thus suggesting that its hypolipidaemic action may reflect improved TG-rich lipoprotein catabolism. In addition, ciprofibrate and this drug were tested for antithrombotic activity using a collagen-triggered model of venous thrombosis in diabetic and Yoshida rats. Only ciprofibrate, however, significantly reduced thrombus formation in diabetics, possibly because of its effects on free fatty acid metabolism, whereas no effect was observed in Yoshida rats. In conclusion, the present findings indicate that Vaccinium myrtillus may prove potentially useful for treatment of diabetes, dyslipidaemiae associated with impaired TG-rich lipoprotein clearance.

Reference:

Andrea Cignarella, Milena Nastasi, Elena Cavalli, Lina Puglisi, Novel lipid-lowering properties of vaccinium myrtillus l. Leaves, a traditional antidiabetic treatment, in several models of rat dyslipidaemia: A comparison with ciprofibrate, Thrombosis Research, Volume 84, Issue 5, 1 December 1996, Pages 311-322