Anti-diabetic effect of aqueous extract Crocus sativus L. in tartrazine induced diabetic male rats

Introduction: In this study, we evaluated the antidiabetic and antidiabetogenic effect of saffron against diabetes induced by artificial dye tartrazine on normal male rats. Methods: Dried saffron was macerated for 12 hours in distilled water before usage and crude extract was used to treat male rats. Rats were divided into 5 groups consisted of 6 rats and treatment was performed daily and orally. Group-1 treated with distilled water, group-2 with tartrazine 10mg/kg followed by saffron 120mg/kg until the last day of treatment, group-3 administered with tartrazine, group-4 treated with saffron for 60 days and administered with tartrazine, group-5 with saffron for 105 days. Levels of blood glucose and body weight have been evaluated every 10 days and clinical demonstrations and metabolic parameters were evaluated at the end of the experiment. Results: Levels of blood glucose and body weight have been evaluated every 10 days and clinical demonstrations and metabolic parameters were evaluated at the end of the experiment. Results showed that treatment with tartrazine and saffron did not affect body weights, metabolic parameters but changed the blood glucose levels after 105 days of administration. The levels of glucose and creatinine were significantly increased in group-2 and group-3 compared to control group (P<0.05). There was no significant difference in the level of glucose, creatinine in group4 (P>0.05). Treatment with saffron decreases creatinine level. Conclusion: The outcomes suggest that saffron has curative (antidiabetic) and protective (antidiabetogenic) effect against diabetes induced by tartrazine via reducing blood glucose level and creatinine. Therefore, it should be considered in future therapeutic researches. D ow nl oa de d fr om p pj . p hy ph a. ir at 1 5: 02 + 04 30 o n T ue sd ay A ug us t 1 8t h 20 20 313 | Physiol Pharmacol 21 (2017) 312-321 Lahmass et al. Diabetes influences the quality of life of the patients as well as forcing them to undergo lifestyle changes such as regular monitoring of their blood glucose levels (Smyth and Heron, 2006). As a public health problem, Diabetes mellitus type 2 is an important endocrine and metabolic disorder, and the incidence is on growth all over the world, especially in China (Seino et al., 2010). Treatment by chemical medicines such as acarbose or metformin is extensively used to treat this disease, but there have many negative effects can cause great damage to the health of patients. Several studies showed that elements extracted from plants do well in treatment of diabetes mellitus type 2 such as Crocus sativus (Mohajeri et al., 2008; Elgazar et al., 2013), Alluim sativum (Eidi et al., 2006) and Trigonella foenumgraecum (Subramanian and Prasath, 2014). Tartrazine is an orange‐coloured, water soluble powder used worldwide as food additives to colour several foods, drugs and cosmetics. It has been added in cooking with a principal aim to give a colour to a foodstuff. Tartrazine has been widely used as a food additive for the yellow colour and is often responsible for allergic reactions in humans (Neuman et al., 1978; Devlin and David, 1992). The results of some studies showed that tartrazine had the carcinogenetic and mutagenetic effects (Borzelleca and Hallagan, 1988; Collins et al., 1990; Koutsogeorgopoulou et al., 1998; Walton et al., 1999; Sasaki et al., 2002). Tartrazine also increase blood glucose level and plasma creatinine, cholesterol and triglyceride (Himri et al., 2011). Saffron is a spice derived from the flower of Crocus sativus Linn. it’s a genus in the family Iridaceae. Regarding therapeutic characteristics, saffron is beneficial for curing nervous pains, asthma, rheumatism, cough and gastric disorders (Sampathu et al., 1984). To treat diseases traditionally, a crude extract of pistils of Crocus sativus in water was administered orally alone or with other medicinal plants (Srivastava et al., 2010). For a long time, the use of the plant of Crocus sativus was interested only in the part of the red stigmata. Egyptians used saffron by mixing with tea or associated with food in the kitchen for its stimulating and euphoric effects (Winterhalter and Straubinger, 2000). The ancient Romans had hoped to benefit from its reputed ability to prevent hangovers by scraping stigma into their wine (Teuscher et al., 2005). As a medicinal plant, saffron is used in traditional Persian medicine for throat problems, depression, menstrual disorders and inflammation (Akhondzadeh et al., 2004). In Ayurvedic medicine, saffron was used to treat asthma, arthritis, colds and as an aphrodisiac, adaptogenic, antispasmodic, carminative, expectorant and sedative (Ríos et al., 1996). It has been used in the remedy against eye diseases, scarlet fever, asthma, smallpox, colds and heart disease (Abdullaev and Espinosa-Aguirre, 2004; Bhandari, 2015). Numerous studies have demonstrated that saffron have anti-oxidant (Kanakis et al., 2007; Chen et al., 2008), and its crocin have beneficial effects in the treatment of neurodegenerative disorders such as Alzheimer’s disease (Naghizadeh et al., 2013). Also saffron or its active constituents has demonstrated an antinociceptive effect, as well as acute and/or chronic anti-inflammatory activity (Hosseinzadeh and Younesi, 2002). Aqueous extract of saffron and its constituent showed an aphrodisiac activity in normal male rats (Hosseinzadeh et al., 2008). Recently, it was found that saffron extract, significantly decrease blood glucose level, cholesterol (Arasteh et al., 2010) and has anti-hyperglycemic effects (Kianbakht and Hajiaghaee, 2011; Elgazar et al., 2013). Many people use traditionally the macerate of saffron in water (crude extract) to treat diseases and the present study aims to assess the curative and protective effects of crude extract of saffron on tartrazine induced diabetic rats. For the first time we investigated the model of diabetes induced by tartrazine in healthy male rats. Materials and methods Plant materials Crocus sativus L. or saffron was obtained from Taliouine (Taroudant Province, Souss-Massa-Drâa, Morocco), local name: zaâfran. Three specimens of the plant have been deposited at the plant section of Herbarium University Mohammed Premier Oujda Morocco (HUMPOM), under the voucher number (HUMPOM210). The identification of the plant has been done and confirmed by a professional botanist, Professor Fennane Mohammed from Scientific Institute in Rabat, Morocco. The extraction was carried following this protocol: Dried milled powder of stigmas of Crocus sativus L. D ow nl oa de d fr om p pj . p hy ph a. ir at 1 5: 02 + 04 30 o n T ue sd ay A ug us t 1 8t h 20 20 Antihyperglycaemic effect of crude extract of stigmas Physiol Pharmacol 21 (2017) 312-321 | 314 was macerated for 12 hours in distilled water at 4 °C before usage and crude extract (the whole of stigmas and distilled water) was used to treat male rats.