Investigation of ginger (Zingiber officinale) aqueous extract as an anti-diabetic in vitro

Diabetes mellitus is a condition of metabolic imbalance, indicated by a high level of blood glucose (hyperglycemia) resulting from a reduction of insulin secretion, action, or both. People with diabetes suffer from a lack or deficiency of insulin or insulin resistance. The metabolic imbalances are often not satisfactorily corrected using conventional medicines and even cause some side effects, which can be detrimental. Research on herbal medicines for the treatment of diabetes is urged by the need to reduce unwanted side effects common with conventional medicines/treatments used in glucose regulation. This study aims to investigate the antidiabetic effect of Ginger ( Zingiber officinale ) aqueous extract in improving the glucose uptake in mouse tissues in vitro. This study is a true experimental research design with a posttest-only control group design. There were three groups of mice in this study: the control group, which were only given plain water; the second group of mice with 5% aqueous ginger extract and the last group were given 25% aqueous ginger extract. All groups were given treatment for four consecutive weeks, then dissected their cardiac muscle, skeletal muscle, pancreas, and liver tissues to analyze the glucose uptake. The result showed that both the ginger aqueous extract groups were able to increase the glucose uptake of the mice. In conclusion, this research has shown that aqueous ginger extract may have improved the glucose uptake in most tissues of the mice in the groups. Therefore, ginger could have great potential as an alternative way in the treatment of diabetes type 2.