Pharmacognostic Evaluation and Anti-Diabetic Activity of Ethanol Extract of Triumfetta cordifolia A. Rich (Tiliaceae) Leaves

Aim: The study was aimed at evaluating some pharmacognostic parameters and investigates the anti-diabetic activity of ethanol extract of Triumfetta cordifolia leaf Methods: The pharmacognostic profiling of Triumfetta cordifolia leaves was carried out using some standard pharmacognostic tools for crude drug standardization such as qualitative and quantitative microscopy, analytical evaluation and phytochemical screening. The plant material was extracted using cold maceration method in ethanol and fractionation was carried out using n-hexane, ethylacetate and butanol. The acute toxicity study was done following standard method. Diabetes in albino wistar rats was intraperitoneally induced using 120 mg/kg body weight of alloxan monohydrate. The diabetic rats where treated with 200 and 400 mg/kg body weight of the crude extract and 400mg/kg of each of the fractions. Glibenclamide was used as the standard drug (5 mg/kg) and diabetic rats without treatment as negative control. The procedure was also similarly performed using the non-diabetic rats. The administration of all treatments was done orally, once daily for 21 days and blood sera of the blood samples from rats across the groups were collected at the end of the treatment period and the concentrations of Aspartate aminotransferase (AST), Alkaline phosphatase (ALP) and Alanine aminotransferase (ALT) were evaluated. Results: The results of the qualitative microscopic evaluation of Triumfetta cordifolia leaf revealed paracytic stomata, unicellular trichomes, wavy wall epidermal cells and prismatic calcium oxalate. Quantitative microscopic study gave 23.67 ± 0.58 stomata number, 0.023 ± 0.00058 stomata index, 18.33 ± 1.53 Palisade ratio and 10.67 ± 0.58 vein-islet number while the analytical standard revealed 9.3 total ash, 3.5 water soluble ash and 1.34 acid insoluble ash. The phytochemical analysis revealed the presence of alkaloids, glycosides, Tannins, flavonoids steroids and terpenoids in the Triumfetta cordifolia leaves ethanol extract (TCEE). A significant reduction (P≤0.05) in fasted blood sugar level of diabetic rats was observed during treatment with Triumfetta cordifolia leaves extract and the blood sugar level lowering potential was comparable to the glibenclamide’s group. There was improvement of body weight in TCEE treated groups and ethylacetate fraction group. The Leaf extract of Triumfetta cordifolia showed a high significant (P≤0.05) ameliorating potential on liver’s degenerating hepatocytes evidenced by the comparable reduction in AST, ALT and ALP levels with the glibenclamide’s and diabetic’s groups. Conclusion: The overall results showed that Triumfetta cordifolia leaf possesses blood sugar lowering and liver hepatocytes regenerating potentials while the pharmacognostic profiling of the plant can serve as a reference and guide for future researchers.