Antidiabetic activity and kidney protection effect of lemon pepper nano-emulsion in streptozotocin-induced diabetic male Wistar rats

Some previous studies have looked for natural products to become supplementary for antidiabetic drugs when the diabetic case rate was high. Lemon pepper has been widely studied for antidiabetic activity. However, none of these studies developed other pharmaceutical forms of lemon pepper fruit. Due to this reason, this study aimed to investigate the antidiabetic activity of lemon pepper fruit in a nano-emulsion form. This study underwent an acute toxicity assay for lemon pepper nano-emulsion. Acute toxicity testing confirmed its safety, and an experimental study was conducted using twenty-five streptozotocin-induced diabetic rats divided into five groups: three treatment groups (25, 50, and 75 mg/kg body weight (BW) and pair of control (0.5% Sodium Carboxy Methyl Cellulose) and standard (100 mg/kg BW metformin) groups. On the other hand, this study also used five non-diabetic rats as a normal group. Five non-diabetic rats served as a normal group. Blood glucose levels were measured every five days, and kidney function tests (KFT) were performed on 15th day. All doses of lemon pepper nano-emulsion significantly reduced blood glucose levels by 71 mg/dL on the 10th day (P-Value < 0.05) and 89 mg/dL on the 15th day (P-Value: 0.001). Creatinine levels did not affect(P: Value: 0.233), but 50 mg/ kg BW of lemon pepper nano-emulsion significantly reduced blood urea nitrogen (BUN) levels to 40 mg/dL, with the highest dose (75 mg/kg BW) further lowering BUN to 38 mg/dL (P-Value: 0.001). In conclusion, lemon pepper nano-emulsion effectively decreased blood glucose level and mitigated kidney from hyperglycaemic-induced injury, highlighting the potential of its novel nano-formulation as a therapeutic option for diabetes management.