Enhancement of Intestinal Motility and Transit Time in Streptozotozin-Induced Diabetic Rats Treated with Ocimum gratissimum

Aims: Acute changes in the blood glucose concentration have a substantial effect on intestinal motility in both diabetic and healthy subjects. This research work was therefore designed to assess the effect of DM on GIT motor activity and the impact of treatment with OG on same.
Methodology: The phytoconstituents and median lethal dose of the plant extract was determined before administration. Eighteen rats were used; the animals were divided into three groups of six rats each. Group 1 served as the control which was fed with normal feed. Group 2 was diabetic untreated rats (DM) while group 3 was OG treated diabetic rats (DMT). At the end of 28 days, the intestinal transit and motility were determined using graded doses of acetylcholine, adrenaline and atropine.
Results: The DMT intestine showed greater increase in contraction with increase in concentration of acetylcholine, application of adrenaline showed that the ileum of the DMT had a significantly lower (P=.001) percentage change in relaxation when compared to control or DM groups but there was no significant difference between DM and control group. While atropine caused a significant increase (P=.001) in percentage change in relaxation in the DMT group when compared to control and DM groups. There was no significant difference between the DM and control group. DM and the DMT groups had significantly higher (P=.05) percentage transit than the control group. There were no significant differences between DM and DMT groups.
Conclusion: These results demonstrate that impaired intestinal motor activity in type I STZ-induced diabetic rats is enhanced by treatment with OG, this may be possibly due to its hypoglycemic effect and its concomitant impact on related biochemical and neuroendocrine interplay that affect GI motor function.