A Science News Wire Blog: Traditional and Nano medicine combo against diabetes

Indian scientists have used a substance from plant source to make silver nanoparticles that are effective against diabetes. The new medicine is called NanoHerb and is made using gymnemic acid isolated from leaves of Gurmar plant.

Gurmar plant is native to India and Sri Lanka and its extract is taken orally along with insulin or diabetes medications to reduce blood sugar in traditional medicine. The silver nanoparticles made in this study had an average diameter of 21.5 nanometers. This small size enhances uptake in the body, which is the possible mechanism by which it increases the secretion of pancreatic insulin thereby managing diabetes, according to scientists.

Diabetic rats were orally given metformin or the NanoHerb for 2 weeks. They found that NanoHerb lowered blood glucose, harmful LDL cholesterol, concomitantly increasing the beneficial HDL cholesterol, just like metformin. The scientists find the new NanoHerb medicine to be very promising. “We recommend biologically synthesized silver nanoparticles to be utilized for treatment of diabetes mellitus and hyperlipidemia. It can be a natural alternative to drugs such as metformin that are synthetic and have side effects”, says Dr. Shankar Kalakotla, Professor at Pullareddy Institute of Pharmacy, Sangareddy in Telangana.

They have applied for a patent and looking forward to ethics permission to test NanoHerb in human patients. Studies in mice showed that it is safe and nontoxic. It was published in a recent issue of the Journal Material Letters.

The research team consisted of Kalakotla Shanker, G Krishna Mohan, Vinyas Mayasa, and Lakshmi Pravallika. The study was done at the Institute of Science and Technology, Jawaharlal Nehru Technological University, Hyderabad, in Telangana, and KLE University, Belgaum in Karnataka. The Science and Engineering Research Board (SERB), Department of Science and Technology provided funding. (India Science Wire)