Hypoglycemic potential of combined methanolic extract of Nigela sativa (black cumin) and Cicer arietinum (chickpea)

In spite of the rapid progress in the field of medicine, humanity still striving for cure of diabetes, a disorder of metabolism. From literature study it is inferred that no one therapeutic agent is isolated and/ or synthesized to treat diabetes, but to manage the disease. Therefore, it is of much importance to address this medical issue with phytochemical synergism for boosting immunity and limiting the severe side effects of synthetic hypoglycemic agents. The antioxidant and hypoglycemic effects of black seeds and chickpea have been determined previously, however the combined hypoglycemic effect of these seeds has not been studied until now. In present study the combined methanolic extract (CME) of Nigella sativa (black cumen) and Cicer arietinum (chickpea) seeds has shown the significant antioxidant potential as revealed by its significantly reduced IC50 value for radical scavenging activity in DPPH assay (-36.39%, p<0.001) compared to the standard compound butylated hydroxyanisole (BHA), and also due to the presence of significant (p<0.001) amount of total phenolic contents (TPC) in the mixture (254.2+2.75 mg GAE/g of dry weight). The CME was also fractionated through column chromatography and based on the phytochemical analysis, the fractions enriched with phenolic compounds were isolated and characterized by FT-IR spectroscopy. The IR-spectra have shown the presence of respective functional groups, indicating the isolation of specific phenol enriched compounds from CME which may be further used for drug development. During the evaluation of antidiabetic potential of CME in alloxan induced diabetic rats, the animals showed non-significant (p>0.05) increase (2.12%) in observed body weights, however, showed the significant decrease in blood glucose levels (-42.24%, p<0.001) compared to the diabetic control rats. Our findings suggest that CME may be used as a potential hypoglycemic herbal medication or might be used in conjunction with the usual synthetic drugs to boost activity and limit the side effects.