Antidiabetic Activity of Essential Oil of Hedychium spicatum

A Himalayan plant Hedychium spicatum is medicinally very important as its rhizomes are quite aromatic in nature. In ourstudy the antidiabetic activity of the oil was studied after extracting the oil from rhizomes using Clevenger apparatus.The antidiabetic activity was studied in vivo in diabetic male Wistar rats. The reference drug used was glibenclemide.After administring the rats with plant oil at 0.3ml per rat for 14 days, the blood sample was taken on the last day to checkblood glucose level and various renal function parameters. The histopathological study of pancreas was done for eachgroup. Gas chromatography-Mass spectrometry (GC-MS) results revealed that the main component in the oil was 1,8cineole. The results on animal model showed that the oral dose of Hedychium spicatum Essential Oil (HEO) reduced theblood glucose and urea level of the rats of group 3 and were statistically significant when compared with normal control.The islets of langerhans of rat pancreas provided with HEO regained normal shape when compared with diabetic controlgroup, emphasizing the antidiabetic potential of the plant essential oil.