A study into the hypoglycaemic effectiveness of a combination of traditional Chinese herbs (GLUCOSTAT) in mouse heart tissue culture

We have previously demonstrated that a combination of traditional Chinese herbs and chromium nicotinamide available commercially Australia (GLUCOSTAT) was effective in lowering fasted blood glucose concentrations in patients showing early signs of type 2 diabetes (1). However this treatments mode of action remains unknown. The aim of this study was to investigated its effectiveness in stimulating glucose uptake into muscle tissue using mouse heart muscle as the experimental model. An aqueous extract was prepared by placing 5l of the herb combination into 1 litre boiling water and allowing it to stand for 24 hours. The extract was filtered and kept at -20C until Male Swiss mice were euthanased and the heart removed and placed into ice cold saline. The heart was cut into 2mm squares and place 1 ml DMEM per well in 24 well tissue culture plates. Various concentrations of the herbal extract was added to each well in quadrupli in the presence of two concentrations of glucose (4 & 8 mM/l). The plates were incubated for 24 hours in 5% CO₂ in air at 37C. glucose concentration was then measured by a Dade XL clinical analyser and the results expressed as a percentage of glucose relative to heart tissue without the presence of the herbal extract. The results showed that the herbal extract had a negligible effect (2% 4mM/l of glucose but significantly increased glucose uptake at 8mM/l (15%). These results suggest that this combination of traditional Chinese herbs may be effective in stimulating glucose uptake by muscle tissue in moderately elevated glucose concentrations. Further is required to investigate the mechanism.