Wq. Luo et al., AN EXPERIMENTAL-ANALYSIS OF THERAPEUTIC EFFECTS OF A CHINESE HERBAL PRESCRIPTION IN STREPTOZOCIN-TREATED RATS, Biomedical research, 19(2), 1998, pp. 127-133
A Chinese herbal prescription, Hachimijiogan, is one of the traditiona
l Kampo prescriptions in Japan and China, and has been widely used for
treatment of several chronic disease including diabetes mellitus. The
present study provides experimental evidence for significant lowering
of the streptozocin (STZ)-induced increase in plasma glucose level, a
nd for significant recovery to the intact levels of plasma insulin and
C-peptide in the STZ-treated rats after treatment for four weeks with
the prescription. Signs of diabetes mellitus in the STZ-treated rats
were also recovered by the treatment with this medicine. These results
suggest strongly that Hachimijiogan has the substantial pharmacologic
al basis of therapeutics on insulin-dependent diabetes mellitus (IDDM)
.