Introduction. Uncontrolled diabetes mellitus (DM) is related to skin disorders, particularly dry skin. Pathogenesis of dry skin in type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) rises from the chronic hyperglycemia causing an increase in advanced glycation end-products (AGEs), proinflammatory cytokines, and oxidative stress. Combination of oral and topical Centella asiatica (CA) is expected to treat dry skin in T2DM patients more effectively through decreasing N(6)‐carboxymethyl‐lysine (CML) and interleukin‐1α (IL‐1α) and increasing superoxide dismutase (SOD) activity. Methods. A three‐arm prospective, double‐blind, randomized, controlled study was performed to evaluate the efficacy of the oral and topical CA extract in 159 T2DM patients with dry skin. The subjects were divided into the CA oral (CAo) 2 × 1.100 mg + CA topical (CAt) 1% ointment group, oral placebo (Plo) + CAt group, and Plo and topical placebo (Plt) group. Dry skin assessment was performed on day 1, 15, and 29, while evaluation of CML, IL‐1α, and SOD activity was on day 1 and 29. Result. Effectivity of CAo + CAt combination was assessed based on HbA1c and random blood glucose (RBG). In well‐controlled blood glucose, on day 29, the percentage of SRRC decrement was greater in the CAo + CAt group compared to the control group (p = 0.04). SCap value in the CAo + CAt group was greater than that in the control group (p = 0.01). In the partially controlled blood glucose, increment of SOD activity in the CAo + CAt group was greater than that in the control group (p = 0.01). There were medium‐to‐strong correlation between CML with SOD (r = 0.58, p < 0.05) and IL‐1α with SOD (r = 0.70, p < 0.05) in well‐controlled blood glucose. Systemic and topical adverse events were not significantly different between groups. Conclusion. CAo and CAt combination can be used to significantly improve dry skin condition through increasing SOD activity in T2DM patients with controlled blood glucose.

Background and Aim: Chronic hyperglycemia in prediabetic individuals would progress to diabetes and lead to several systemic disruptions, including hematological parameters. This study aimed to investigate the correlation between prediabetes and hematological indices in a prediabetic rat model. Materials and Methods: Eighteen male rats were randomly divided into two groups of nine. Prediabetes was induced in nine rats by a 3-week high-fat and high-glucose diet, followed by low-dose streptozotocin (STZ) injection (30 mg/ kg body weight). The oral glucose tolerance test was performed, and the fasting blood glucose (FBG) and insulin levels were measured 72 h after STZ administration. The control group of nine rats was given standard diets. At the end of the 3rd week, the animals fasted overnight before blood collection. Blood samples were drawn and used for the analysis of the FBG and fasting insulin levels and glycated albumin to define prediabetes criteria before hematology analysis. Results: We found a significant increase in the FBG and insulin levels in the prediabetic versus the control group. There were decreases in red blood cells, hemoglobin, and hematocrit levels and red cell distribution in prediabetic rats versus the control. At the same time, a significant increase in the platelet count was observed in the prediabetic group. There was a positive correlation between FBG and lymphocytes and neutrophil-lymphocyte ratio in prediabetic rats. On the other hand, we found a negative correlation between white blood cell count and glycated albumin. Conclusion: Correlations were found in several hematological parameters in the prediabetic rat models. The changes in hematological indices in prediabetic rats may be further used as a valuable indicator of glycemic control.

Liver diseases are one of the major health problems worldwide and often difficult to treat. Hypoxia condition is one of its pathogenesis. This study was aimed to prove the hepatoprotective effects of the combination of Acalypha indica (AI) and Centella asiatica (CA) against hypoxia. Seven groups of Spraque-Dawley rats are used as follows: negative control without hypoxic condition, six other groups were put in hypoxic chamber and treated with water, AI, CA, two groups of AI-CA combination, and vitamin C, respectively. After 7 d of treatment, Malondialdehyde (MDA) levels were measured in plasma and liver. One of the AI-CA combination groups showed significant protective effect against hypoxia in liver (p < 0.001) but not in plasma

Background. The extract of Andrographis paniculata (Burm. F.) Wall. Ex. Nees. (sambiloto) (穿心蓮 chuān xīn lián) has been reported to have an antidiabetic effect on mice models and has been used traditionally in the community. The exact mechanism of sambiloto extract in decreasing plasma glucose is unclear, so we investigated the role of sambiloto extract in the incretin pathway in healthy and prediabetic subjects. Methods. This study was a randomized, placebo-controlled, crossover, double-blind trial. It included 38 people who were healthy and 35 people who had prediabetes. All subjects were randomly assigned to receive either the intervention sambiloto extract or a placebo. All subjects were randomly assigned to receive the first intervention for 14 days. There was a washout period between subsequent interventions. The primary outcome was glucagon-like peptide 1 (GLP-1) concentration, and secondary outcomes were fasting insulin, 2-hour postprandial insulin, homeostasis model assessment of insulin resistance (HOMA-IR), fasting blood glucose, 2-hour postprandial blood glucose, dipeptidyl peptidase-4 (DPP-4), and glycated albumin before and after the intervention. Result. After the intervention, GLP-1 concentration significantly increased in prediabetes by 19.6% compared to the placebo ( ). There were no significant differences in the changes of fasting insulin, 2-hour postprandial insulin, HOMA-IR, fasting blood glucose, 2-hour postprandial blood glucose, DPP-4, and glycated albumin levels after the intervention. Sambiloto extract did not inhibit the DPP-4 enzyme in healthy and prediabetic subjects. Conclusion. Sambiloto extract increased GLP-1 concentration without inhibiting the DPP-4 enzyme in prediabetic subjects. This trial is registered with ClinicalTrials.gov (ID: NCT03455049), registered on 6 March 2018—retrospectively registered (https://clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/show/NCT03455049).

Moringa oleifera Lam (MO) plants have long been reported to have many pharmacotherapy benefits. In vitro and in vivo studies have shown that MO extracts have various biological activities and therapeutic effects, including cardioprotective, cardiometabolic, hypocholesterolemic, neuroprotective, anti-inflammatory, antioxidant, anti-hypertensive, anti-diabetic, anti-bacterial, immunomodulatory and anticancer. Researchers have tested extracts from various parts of the MO tree, both in vitro and in vivo, on several types of cancer (such as liver cancer cells, breast cancer, colorectal, leukemia, lung cancer, and oral cancer) with varying success. This review aims to explore the current state of the latest anticancer activity research of MO plants in the last five years. We tried to explore the anticancer activities of MO extracts from reported in vivo and in vitro studies. We searched systematically from three databases (PubMed, Scopus, and Embase) and summarized the data. The keywords used were “Moringa oleifera” AND “anticancer” AND “in vivo” OR “in vitro”. The inclusion criteria were in vivo or in vitro experimental studies and exclusion criteria analyses i.e., in silico trials, study protocols, reviews, or observational studies. This review includes 16 papers on nonclinical studies of MO anticancer activity. Several active compounds have been purified and have reported their anticancer effectiveness, including glucomoringin-ITC/MIC-1, 7-octanoic acid, oleamide, 1-phenyl-2-pentanol, quercetin, gallic acid, p-coumaric acid, and 4-hydroxy 3 – methoxy cinnamic acid, quinic acid. There was no difference in the mechanism of anticancer action based on plant parts, leaves, roots, and seeds, even though using different extraction methods. The general mechanism of action shown was apoptotic, antiproliferative, and cytotoxic. The dose used differed depending on the type of cancer cells used. Some used conventional extraction methods, and others have used modern techniques to extract the purified active compounds from the fractionation process. Our review made it clear that MO could be an excellent and safe candidate for the development of novel therapies against cancer and was most commonly reported in MCF-7, HepG2, and HCT-116 cancer cells. In addition, the development of MO products as future cancer prevention is also interesting to be explored and developed optimally in clinical settings.

Hypercholesterolemia is a common metabolic disorder found worldwide, which is associated with dyslipidemia and cardiovascular disease incidence. Among the first line choices drugs is gemfibrozil but it has side effect gastrointestinal disorder. The aim of this study is to investigate anti hypercholesterolemia effect of ethanol extract of Acalypha indica roots (AI Extract) on plasma lipid profile and fatty liver tissue, compared to gemfibrozil. Male Sprague-Dawley rats were assigned to five groups (n = 6) and give the intervention for 4 weeks. One normal group receive normal feed, one group still induce with high fructose-cholesterol diet (HFCD), while the others were supplemented with 250 mg/kgBW AI extract, 10 mg/kgBW gemfibrozil and combination between 250 mg/kgBW AI extract + 10 mg/kgBB gemfibrozil. Total cholesterol were analyzed with Kruskal Wallis test and post hoc Mann-Whitney test. Meanwhile, HDL, LDL, triglycerides and atherogenic index were analyzed with One Way ANOVA test and post hoc Mann-Whitney test. There are statistically significant difference results in all lipid plasma profile: Total Cholesterol, (p < 0, 0001), triglyseride (p = 0, 0002) HDL (p = 0, 0276), LDL (p < 0, 0001) and Atherohenic index (p < 0, 0001) in administration of Ai extract+gemfibrozil group compared to control groups. Hypercholesterolemia.liver tissues were assessed using Clinical Research Network Scoring for Non Alcoholic Steatohepatitis (NASH). Gemfibrozil and AI gemfibrozil are significantly reduced lipid deposition in fatty liver tissue (p < 0.05), compare with control group. In conclusion, the result of this study indicated that the extract of AI extract can be used as alternative therapy for anti hypercholesterolemia.