Effect of Ginger Drink on the Effectiveness on Glimepiride Drug Used to Treat Diabetes in Rats

Diabetes mellitus (DM) is a metabolic disease, involving inappropriately elevated blood glucose levels. The combined use of herbs and antidiabetic drugs increases the like hood of pharmacokinetic and pharmacodynamic interactions. Therefore this study aims to investigate the effect of ginger drink on the efficiency glimepiride drug used to treat diabetes in rats. Thirty six adult albino rats Sprague Dawley strain, weighing (150+5g)were randomly divided into two main groups. Gorup I: negative control group (6 rats), fed standard diet only. Gorup II (diabetic rats), (n = 30) . Divided into 5 subgroups, (6 rats each) according the following: Subgroup 1: positive control fed standard diet only. Subgroup 2: fed standard diet plus glimepiride drug as (4 mg/kg orally once daily) a treatment of diabetic rats. Subgroup 4,5 and 6 were fed standard diets and received a daily oral dose of glimepiride drug plus a daily oral dose of ginger drink 5, 7.5 and 10 μl/g of body weight respectively. At the end of the trial (30 days) rats were fasting for 12h and blood samples were collected and centrifuged to obtain serum and kept frozen until analysis. giving rats with ginger drink at different concentration with glimepiride drug enhanced the levels of glucose, insulin, lipids profile, malondialdehyde and catalase and compared to positive control group. Conclusion: The use of ginger drink in different concentrations has a strong effect in increase the efficacy of glimepiride drug.