The effects of crude polysaccharide from Purslane (CPP) on body weight (bw), blood glucose, total cholesterol (TC), high-density lipoprotein cholesterol (HDL-c), triglyceride (TG) and serum insulin levels were studied in diabetes mellitus mice. CPP treatment (200, 400 mg/kg bw) for 28 days resulted in a significant decrease in the concentrations of fasting blood glucose (FBG), TC and TG. Furthermore, CPP significantly increased the concentration of HDL-c, body weight and serum insulin level in the mice. In addition, according to acute toxicity studies and single cell gel electrophoresis analysis, CPP did not produce any physical or behavioral signs of toxicity. More significantly, our data demonstrated CPP exhibited the best effects at the dose of 400 mg/kg bw. The above results suggest that CPP can control blood glucose and modulate the metabolism of glucose and blood lipids in diabetes mellitus mice, so we conclude that CPP should be evaluated as a candidate for future studies on diabetes mellitus.
Keywords: Diabetes; Purslane; hypoglycemia; polysaccharide.