Two Herbal Preparations, Cordyceps Cs4 and Cogent db: Do They Act on Blood Glucose, Insulin Sensitivity, and Diabetes as 'Viscous Dietary Fibers?'

Autor: T. Derek R. Hockaday
Rok vydání: 2002
Předmět:
Zdroj: The Journal of Alternative and Complementary Medicine. 8:403-405
ISSN: 1557-7708
1075-5535
DOI: 10.1089/107555302760253586
Popis: At least, to start with, if the aim is to use the extracts medicinally, and if they are potent, they have to be standardized by a bioassay, as were the digitalis cardiac glycosides and insulin. So it is important to define a mixture’s actions precisely, to find out which are important and/or useful, and to determine which might be suitable for bioassay. All this is even more important if the extract is derived from members of nine plant species as is the case with Cogent db (Shekar et al., 2002; this issue, pages 445–457). This and the previous issue of the Journal offer three papers that describe investigations on the hypoglycemic actions in various mammalian species of two different plant preparations, Cogent db and CordyMaxTM Cs-4, a fermentation product from a mycelial strain isolated from the wild fungus Cordyceps sinensis (Zhao et al., 2002; Balon et al., 2002; Shekar et al., 2002, pages 445–457). Both preparations had already been reported as being active. Cogentdb, used in Ayurvedic medicine, had been active orally in both normal and alloxan-injected (Joy and Kuttan, 1998) and mutant obese rats (Giridharan, 2000)*; and a Cordyceps extract had been active orally in mice (Kiho et al., 1990) as had Cs-4 in highly-trained male athletes (Nicodemus et al., 2001). Both preparations were notable for the substantial doses in which they were given, with the Cogent db dose at 100 mg/kg body weight in mice and the Cs-4 at at 250–2000 mg/kg in rats. The Cogent db study, using 2 tablets three times per day (Shekar et al., 2002; pages 445–457), was an open study of patients with type 2 diabetes who were diagnosed from 3 to 15 years previously. These patients had already been treated with sulphonylurea, with or without added biguanide, which was continued unchanged throughout the 3-month study. The fasting and postprandial blood glucose levels (as recorded absolutely as well as by an arbitary zoning method) and the glycated haemoglobin levels were lower in the Cogent db–treated group at the end of the 3 months but were un
Databáze: OpenAIRE
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