Effect of Rosmarinus Officinalis on Lipid Profile of Streptozotocin-induced Diabetic Rats

Introduction: Diabetes mellitus (DM) is considered as one of the main threats to human health in the 21 st century. The use of herbs as medicines has increased all over the world, gaining popularity and played an important role in disease treatment especially in diabetes mellitus. Aim: The present research was designed to evaluate the effects of dried rosemary leaves powder on blood sugar and lipid profile of streptozotocin-induced diabetic rats. Materials and methods: One hundred (100) male Sprague Dawly rats aged 3 months, weighing 184±11 g, divided into 5 groups (20 rats/group) as follow: G 1: Normal Control; G 2: STZ-induced Diabetics; G 3: STZ-induced Diabetic+ Glibenclamide; G 4: STZ-induced Diabetic+ Dried rosemary leaves powder; G: Normal Control+ Dried rosemary leaves powder. At the end of the experiments ( ≈6 weeks, 45 days), rats were fasted overnight, and then sacrificed under ethyl ether and blood was taken for further biochemical analysis. Results and Discussion: The body weight and High density lipoprotein were decreased significantly in STZ-induced diabetic group of rats (-39.13%) when compared to normal control rats. Diabetes induced by STZ resulted in a significant elevation in the levels of fasting blood glucose (FBG), glycosylated haemoglobin (HbA1c), lipid profile (Cholesterol, low, very low density lipoprotein cholesterol) and triacylglycerol in comparison to STZinduced diabetic rats. Treatment of STZ-induced diabetic rats with dried rosemary leaves powder improved levels of the affected parameters (decreased level of the increased one as glucose, HbA1c, cholesterol, LDL-C and VLDL-C), trying to reach normal level but still significantly different from normal control group. The treatment reduced the elevated blood glucose, HbA1c, triacylglycerol, cholesterol and LDL-C by 53.97, 24.56, 45.43, 39.31 and 33.89 % respectively in respect to untreated STZ-induced diabetic group. Dried rosemary powder leaves have no significant influence on body weight, plasma glucose level and lipid profile of normal rats. Conclusion: The results of this experiment may indicate that the dried rosemary leaves powder has a beneficial effect as an anti-diabetic agent and its complications as well as improving lipid metabolism in diabetics with no effect on normal rats.