bioassay-guided antidiabetic study of chromatographic fractions of boswellia dalzielii hutch. leaf extract

Background: boswellia dalzielli hutch. (burseraceae) is a medicinal plant, which is used locally by the local dwellers for the management and treatment of microbial-related diseases, neurological conditions, stomach spasms, diabetes, etc. objectives: this study aimed at isolating a phytochemical of anti-diabetic potentials from the leaf of boswellia dalzielii in alloxan-induced diabetic rats. methods: the n-butanol fraction of the leaf of b. dalzielii was fractionated using column chromatography. fractions obtained were screened phytochemically and by antidiabetic study. results: encoded column fraction b4 (150 mg/kg) produced a maximum reduction (72.45%) in fasting blood glucose (fbg) of animals after 7 hours, which was significantly (p<0.05) different from the controls (alloxan-induced diabetic rats) and was better than glibenclamide (52.67%). the re-column fractions obtained from fraction b4 were pooled based on similar rf values and encoded b41-b48, and subjected to further antidiabetic evaluation on alloxaninduced mice. eight sub-fraction with doses of 50 mg/kg each were administered to all the groups. fraction b44 had the highest reduction of fbg by 65.63%, whose effect was significantly higher than the non-treated diabetic mice (negative control) and glibenclamide (52.68%) at 2.0 mg. further purification of sub-fraction b44 with sephadex lh-20 yielded encoded fractions a, b, and c. isolate c showed the highest inhibition of glycemia (22.85%) when the dose of 10 mg/kg was administered (p.o). conclusion: the antidiabetic effect of the plant in laboratory animals (rats and mice) may be due to the presence of the isolated phenolic compounds.