Patients are turning into herbs for the management of diabetes, which cause increasing in the demand of plant-based alternative medicines. Ficus deltoidea or locally known as "Mas Cotek" in Malaysia is a famous herbal plant. However, many varieties of F. deltoidea existed with varied antidiabetic activities inspire us to evaluate in vivo antidiabetic activity of the most available varieties of F. deltoidea. Therefore, antihyperglycemic effect of different varieties of F. deltoidea at dose 250 mg/kg was evaluated on streptozotocin-nicotinamide-induced diabetic rats and further assessed their urinary metabolites using proton nuclear magnetic resonance (1H-NMR). The hyperglycemic blood level improved towards normoglycemic state after 30 days of treatment with standardized extracts of F. deltoidea var. trengganuensis, var. kunstleri, and var. intermedia. The extracts also significantly managed the biochemical parameters in diabetic rats. Metabolomics results showed these varieties were able to manage the altered metabolites of diabetic rats by shifting some of the metabolites back to their normal state. This knowledge might be very important in suggesting the use of these herbs in long-term treatment for diabetes. The most potential variety can be recommended, which may be useful for further pharmacological studies and herbal authentication processes.
Keywords: Antihyperglycemic; Diabetes; Ficus deltoidea varieties; Metabolic pathway; Urine metabolomics.