Myocardial-salvaging Effects of a Novel Polyherbal Combination with Dipeptidyl Peptidase-4 Inhibitory Activity.

Background: Some of the medicinal plants possess dipeptidyl peptidase-4 (DPP-4) inhibitory properties and could overcome the limitations of synthetic DPP-4 inhibitors.

Aim: We evaluated the anti-diabetic and myocardial-salvaging effects of a novel polyherbal combination (PHC) containing Terminalia arjuna, Commiphora mukul and Emblica officinalis in rats.

Methods: Male Wistar rats weighing 150-200 g and 8-10 weeks were randomised to negative control (NC; no disease induction/treatment), disease control (DC; disease induction but no treatment), vildagliptin (disease induction and treatment with vildagliptin 10 mg/kg) or PHC1000 (disease induction and treatment with PHC 1000 mg/kg). Diabetes was induced using the standard streptozotocin method while myocardial necrosis was induced using isoproterenol. All the data were represented descriptively. We used analysis of variance and Bonferroni's test to evaluate the difference between the study groups; a P ≤ 0.05 was considered statistically significant.

Results: Thirty rats were randomised (six in the NC group and eight each in the remaining three groups). Treatment with PHC1000 and vildagliptin significantly lowered the elevated blood glucose (P < 0.001). The creatine phosphokinase myocardial band levels were significantly lower in the PHC1000 and vildagliptin-treated rats versus the DC group (P < 0.001). The cardioprotective effect of PHC1000 was superior to that of vildagliptin (P < 0.05). PHC and vildagliptin treatment showed statistically significant DPP-4 inhibitory activity (P < 0.001). The biochemical parameters and histopathological observations endorsed the safety of PHC.

Conclusions: The PHC exhibited significant antidiabetic and cardioprotective efficacy. While their antidiabetic activities were comparable, PHC was found to have a superior myocardial-salvaging effect compared with vildagliptin.