Effect of urtica dioica boiling on serum glucose, insulin and lipids in fructose-fed male rats

Urtica dioica has been consumed as antihypertensive, antilipidemic and antidiabetic herbal medicine. Since consumption of fructose-enriched diet causes insulin resistance, the objective of this study was to evaluate the boiling solution effect of Urtica dioica on serum glucose, insulin and lipids in fructose-fed male rats. The experiment was performed on 28 Wistar-Albino male rats that randomly divided in control and two test groups. Control group intake tap water, but test groups consumed fructose-enriched diet (66%) for 4 weeks. The first test group received 40-60 ml boiling of Urtica dioica on experiment period, but the second test group received the same volume of distilled water during study. At the end, animals were anesthetized and sacrificed and blood samples were collected. Serum glucose, lipids insulin were measured. Obtained data were analyzed by SPSS V.11, via ANOVA and Scheffe tests. Results were expressed as mean±SD and p<0.05 were recognized significant. Results showed that serum glucose, insulin, water and food intake were significantly decreased on fructose-fed male rats who received Urtica dioica boiling, compared with those of other test group but other parameters did not show any difference between test groups. These results indicated that Urtica dioica boiling induced decreased insulin resistance in fructose-fed male rats. Further studies are needed to explore the exact mechanism.