Evaluation of urine samples of diabetic rats treated with metformin and different natural product combinations

Diabetes is highly prevalent worldwide, and urine analyses with dipstick methods are important tools to monitor glucosuria and nephron status in diabetic animals. The aim of this study is to follow glucosuria, ketonuria, and proteinuria changes in hypoglycemic drug use in diabetes and drug and natural product combinations. Male wistar albino rats were used in the study and type 2 diabetes was induced with streptozotocin (65 mg/kg, i.p.) and nicotinamide (110 mg/kg, i.p.). The drug and natural products were administered orally for a period of 84 days (healthy control, diabetic, diabetic+metformin, diabetic+metformin+cherry laurel, diabetic+metformin+rutin and diabetic+metformin+alpha lipoic acid groups), and the urine samples were collected at the end of the experiment. The urinalysis (glucose, ketone, and protein) was done with a dipstick. The results were scored between 0 and 3, and Kruskal-Wallis analysis was applied. There was a significant difference between the untreated diabetic group (DM) and the remaining groups in glucose, but ketone and protein analysis did not show any statistically significant differences. The results showed that drug and drug+natural product combination reduced urinary glucose excretion in diabetes. In conclusion, the use of metformin and/or natural product combinations decreased the glucose output in urine. With an easy and cheap monitoring method such as a dipstick, the metabolic state can be revealed. And the effect of drug and natural product combinations can be monitored.