materials and methods : root of flemingia macrophylla was collected . the root cover was removed and dried under shade below 40 ° c . and powdered . aqueous decoction sample f - i was prepared by soaking the sample in 1 % gum acacia solution overnight and in the next morning it was filtered and used for testing . sample f - ii was freshly prepared by mixing the powder with 1 % gum acacia solution , and used immediately for testing . the dose of drug in each case is 100 mg / kg body weight of the rats . glucose solution ( 12 . 5 g / 100 ml ) was prepared in distilled water . normal albino rats were used for screening of natural product for hypoglycemic activity . at the primary screening level the natural product was fed to the animals orally . the dried sample powder as well as its aqueous extract was used . the blood glucose level was read in glucometer using accutrend sensor comfort strip used in advantage glucometer . the natural product was fed to the animal orally at a dose of 100 mg / kg body weight . fifteen sprague dawley strain ( outbred ) albino rats were taken and kept in polypropylene cages in three groups of three each for fifteen days for acclimatization under standard experimental room conditions . on the sixteenth day all the food from each cage was removed and the animals were kept for overnight starvation ( 5 : 00 p . m . to 9 : 00 a . m .). on seventeenth day , approximately 0 . 10 ml blood was drawn from tail end of each rat . this blood was introduced on the area specified on the strips for blood sample ( accutrend sensor comfort used in advantage glucometer ). the strip was put in the glucometer for reading of blood sugar count . animals , which showed blood glucose levels between 60 to 80 mg / dl , were finally selected and grouped into three and termed as control group , test sample treated groups f - i and f - ii . each group contained three rats . aqueous decoction sample f - i was prepared by soaking 0 . 5 g / 3 ml , powdered sample overnight in distilled water in the night of day seventeen . on day eighteen , glucose solution ( 12 . 5 g / 100 ml ) was prepared in distilled water . aqueous solution of f - i was filtered . f - ii was freshly prepared by adding 1 g sample / 3 ml of water . gum acacia solution was used as vehicle for oral administration of test samples to animal of group f - i and f - ii at an arbitrary dose of 100 mg / kg body weight of the rats . the plant test samples were dissolved in 1 % gum acacia solution ( 1 g / 100 ml ) in the ratio of 0 . 3 g in 3 ml . these doses were given with the help of 1 . 0 ml plastic syringe and cannula at zero hours . an equal amount of 1 . 0 % acacia was given to animals of control group immediately after drawing 0 . 10 ml blood from the tail end of each rat for glucose content ( zero hour sample ). table 1 gives the detailed account of body weight and dose of each group . glucose solution was administered to animals of each group at a dose of 2 . 0 g / kg body weight , after 30 min of giving test samples . approximately 0 . 10 ml blood was drawn from tail end of each rat at 30 , 60 , 90 and 120 min . glucose content was determined for each animal with the help of advantage glucometer using accutrend strips . no food was given to animal till the collection of last blood sample at 120 min . post glucose loaded . tables 3 and 4 represent the blood glucose level of different groups at different time interval . the blood glucose levels at different time intervals are shown in fig1 and 2 . the percentage rise in blood glucose profile of post glucose loaded of rats in different groups at each time interval was determined from 0 min value ( table 7 ) as follows : % rise in blood glucose = ( blood glucose level at determining time period blood glucose level at 0 min time period × 100 ) - 100 the area under each curve for control and test groups was also determined ( fig4 ). % anti hyperglycemic activity = [ area under curve of test sample plant drug treated group area under curve of control group × 100 ] - 100 the control group showed a considerable increase at thirty minutes compared to the two test groups . at sixty minute the blood glucose level lowered down in all the line groups . as per the figure at ninety minutes , the level increased in control group and group fii , whereas the decrease in blood glucose level in group f - i was very much apparent . no considerable change was observed in the groups at 120 minutes of the experiment . statistical treatment was done for the observed values of blood glucose level at different time interval ( tables 5 and 6 ). percent rise in blood glucose level was calculated ( table 7 ). the two test groups fi and fii showed marked hypoglycemic activity ( fig3 and 4 ). percent inhibition in post prandial hypoglycemia by test sample plant drug was calculated as per the adopted standard method ( table 8 ). test group fi showed 65 . 92 % antihyperglycemic activity , and test group fii gives 66 . 17 % antihyperglycemic activity . the experiments prove that the plant species have antihyperglycemic property . at the same time hypoglycemia was not observed in any of the experimental animals . the effect of the herbal drug is more pronounced when used in powdered form in the doses standardized as described . it was found that the effect of the doses persisted after a fortnight . no indication of hypoglycemia ( low blood sugar ) was observed in any of the experimental animals . conclusions : flemingia macrophylla root cover powder and aqueous decoction of the root cover powder showed hypoglycemic activity in glucose loaded albino rats . hypoglycemia was not observed in any of the experimental animals , proving it to be a safe drug . use of aqueous decoction of powdered froot cover of flemingia macrophylla or its aqueous decoction in standardized formulations is a safe and effective method for treating abnormal blood sugar levels . a method of making careya arborea herbal drug for complex hyperglycemic and hypoglycemic activity materials and methods : root of careya arborea was collected . the root cover was removed and dried under shade below 40 ° c . and powdered . aqueous decoction sample c - i was prepared by soaking the sample in 1 % gum acacia overnight and in the next morning it was filtered and used for testing . sample c - ii freshly prepared by adding sample in 1 % gum acacia for immediate use . gum acacia solution was used as vehicle for oral administration of test samples to animal of group c - i and c - ii . the dose of drug in each case is 100 mg / kg body weight of the rats . glucose solution ( 12 . 5 g / 100 ml ) was prepared in distilled water . normal albino rats were used for screening of natural product for hypoglycemic activity . at the primary screening level , the natural product was fed to the animals orally . the dried sample powder as well as its aqueous extract has been used . animals were fasted for sixteen hours . the blood from tail end of each rat was withdrawn for estimating blood glucose level . the blood glucose level was read in glucometer using accutrend sensor comfort strip used in advantage glucometer . the natural product was fed to the animal orally and a dose of 100 mg / kg body weight was used . fifteen sprague dawley strain ( out bred ) albino rats were taken and kept in polypropylene cages in three groups of three each for fifteen days for acclimatization under standard experimental room conditions . on the sixteenth day all the food from each cage was removed and the animals were kept for overnight starvation ( 5 : 00 p . m . to 9 : 00 a . m .). on the eighteenth day , glucose solution ( 12 . 5 g / 100 ml ) was prepared in distilled water . aqueous solution sample c - i was filtered . sample c - ii was freshly prepared by adding 1 g powder / 3 ml of water . gum acacia solution was used as vehicle for oral administration of test samples to animals of group c - i and c - ii at an arbitrary dose of 100 mg / kg body weight of the rats . the plant test samples were dissolved in 1 % gum acacia solution ( 1 g / 100 ml ) in the ratio of 0 . 3 g in 3 ml . these doses were given with the help of 1 . 0 ml plastic syringe and cannula at zero hours . an equal amount of 1 . 0 % gum acacia was given to animals of control group immediately after drawing 0 . 10 ml blood from the tail end of each rat for glucose content ( zero hour sample ). table 9 gives the detailed account of body weight and dose of each group . % rise in blood glucose profile of post glucose loaded of rates in different groups of each time interval was determined from 0 min value , as follows : % rise in blood glucose = ( blood glucose level at determining time period blood glucose level at 0 min time period × 100 ) - 100 the area under each curve was determined ( from fig8 ). percent inhibition in post parandial hyperglycemia by test sample was calculated as follows : % anti hyperglycemic activity = [ area under curve of test sample plant drug treated group area under curve of control group × 100 ] - 100 group c - i and group c - ii were administered with aqueous decoction of the sample powder and powdered sample respectively the results on blood glucose levels are shown in fig5 and fig6 and tabulated in tables 10 - 12 . test group c i showed effective lowering of the blood glucose level ( hypoglycemic effect ), but , surprisingly the test group cii showed increase in blood glucose level ( hyperglycemic effect ) ( tables 11 , 12 ). statistical treatment was done for the observed values of blood glucose level at different time interval ( tables 13 and 14 ). percent rise in blood glucose level was calculated ( table 15 ). percent antihyperglycemic activity was calculated as per the standard method for both the test groups ( table 16 ). the percent rise in blood sugar levels shown in fig7 and 8 clearly indicates the complex hyperglycemic and hypoglycemic activity of careya arborea . the effect of herbal drug is more pronounced when used in powdered form itself in the doses standardized as described . it was found that the effect of the doses given still persisted after a fortnight . this species showed complex hyperglycemic and hypoglycemic activity in glucose loaded albino rats . hypoglycemia was not observed in any of the experimental animals , proving it to be a safe drug . an improved micro hplc method for identification of metformin hydrochloride in root of flemingia macrophylla micro high pressure liquid chromatography was the method employed . large reduction in solvent consumption and therefore solvent operation and toxic waste disposal cost , very low flow rates used with microcolumns make it the method of choice for hplc - ms , particularly the bench - top ms with electrospray and nanospray interfaces . low flow rates used in microcolumns facilitate the unified approach to chromatography . these major advantages are the result of the fact , that small particles , such as 3 and 5 μm can be efficiently packed in microcolumn and therefore same separation chemistry and elution pattern as that obtained from a 4 . 6 mm id , column can be expected . as a result of smaller column diameters for microcolumn hplc , the flow rate requirement is also reduced and the elution peak volume ( flow rate times peak width at half - height ) is therefore reduced by a factor equal to the ratio of the cross - sectional areas for the 4 . 6 mm to the microcolumns . the stationary phase bonded to a porous polymer is held in a narrow bore stainless steel column and the liquid mobile phase is forced through under considerable pressure with the help of a suitable pumping system . the mobile phase is a miscible solvent mixture . the compounds are monitored as they elute off the column by means of a detector , usually measuring in the ultra violet or visible regions of the spectrum . column octadecyl silane ( ods ) c - 18 / 15 cm . particle size 3 micrometer inner diameter of column 5 mm mobile phase 50 : 50 , water : methanol wave length 220 nm flow rate 0 . 2 ml / min . instrument used tsp ( thermo separation product ) make micro hplc system with uv - vis detector . materials and methods : hplc grade water and methanol from e merck india , standard solution : aqueous solution of metformin hydrochloride ( 0 . 1666 mg / ml ) was used as standard . test sample of flemingia macrophylla : 500 mg . of sample powder was submerged in 3 ml distilled water . after keeping for 6 hours , it was stirred for 30 min , filtered and the solution diluted 20 times . the chromatograms obtained during hplc studies are represented in fig9 and 10 . the retention time and characteristic peak was recorded . the standard samples were run in micro hplc under the similar conditions as described . the test samples were also run under the same experimental conditions . for both the test samples peaks were observed at the same retention time , this confirms the presence of the same compound metformin hydrochloride or metformin - like compound in the test sample . thus with the help of micro hplc , a new method has been evolved to determine the presence of an inherent natural compound in the herbal preparation having the same pharmacological effect as synthetic metformin hydrochloride . metformin hydrochloride is a synthetic compound used in synthetic drugs for the treatment of diabetes . an identical compound was found to be naturally present in the root cover of flemingia macrophylla . an improved micro hplc method for identification of metformin hydrochloride in root of careya arborea micro high pressure liquid chromatography was the method employed . large reduction in solvent consumption and therefore solvent operation and toxic waste disposal cost , very low flow rates used with micro - columns make it the method of choice for hplc - ms , particularly the bench - top ms with electrospray and nanospray interfaces . low flow rates used in micro - columns facilitate the unified approach to chromatography . these major advantages are the result of the fact that small particles such as 3 and 5 μm can be efficiently packed in micro column and therefore same separation chemistry and elution pattern as that obtained from a 4 . 6 mm id column can be expected . as a result of smaller column diameters for micro - column hplc , the flow rate requirement is also reduced and the elution peak volume ( flow rate times peak width at half - height ) is therefore reduced by a factor equal to the ratio of the cross - sectional areas for the 4 . 6 mm to the micro - columns . the stationary phase bonded to a porous polymer is held in a narrow bore stainless steel column and the liquid mobile phase is forced through under considerable pressure with the help of a suitable pumping system . the mobile phase is a miscible solvent mixture . the compounds are monitored as they elute off the column by means of a detector , usually measuring in the ultra violet or visible regions of the spectrum . column octadecyl silane ( ods ) c - 18 / 15 cm . particle size 3 micrometer inner diameter of column 5 mm mobile phase 50 : 50 , water : methanol wave length 220 nm flow rate 0 . 2 ml / min . instrument used tsp ( thermo separation product ) make micro hplc system with uv - vis detector . materials and methods : hplc grade water and methanol from e merck india , standard solution : aqueous solution of metformin hydrochloride ( 0 . 166 mg / ml ) was used as standard . test sample of careya arborea : 500 mg . of sample powder was submerged in 3 ml distilled water . after keeping for 6 hours , it was stirred for 30 min , filtered and the solution was diluted 20 times . the chromatograms obtained during hplc studies are represented in fig9 and 11 . the retention time and characteristic peak was recorded . the standard samples were run in micro hplc under the similar conditions already mentioned . the test samples were also run under the same experimental conditions . for both the test samples peaks were observed at the same retention time . this confirms the presence of the same compound metformin hydrochloride or metformin - like compound in the test sample . thus with the help of micro hplc , a new method has been evolved to determine the presence of an inherent natural compound in the herbal preparation having the same pharmacological effect as synthetic metformin hydrochloride . metformin hydrochloride is a synthetic compound used in synthetic drugs for the treatment of diabetes . an identical compound was found to be naturally present in the root cover of careya arborea .
the invention describes compositions and methods containing nonconventional plant materials , and more particularly the species flemingia macrophylla and careya arborea , that help to maintain normal blood sugar levels in humans and animals . the method of preparation of such compositions and methods of quantifying active principles therein are also described . a metformin - like compound were found to be the active hypoglycemic principle in flemingia macrophylla and careya arborea root bark . the compositions of the invention were found to be safe for therapeutic use .