AbstractsMedical & Health Science

Diabetes mellitus, long back considered a disease of minor significance to world health, is now taking its place as one of the main threats to human health in the 21st century. After the introduction of insulin, life expectancy of diabetic patients has increased and instead the problem with chronic complications evolved, cardiovascular disease and renal failure becoming the major causes of death among patients with diabetes. Today, patients with diabetes still have an excess morbidity and mortality when compared with the general population, the major causes still being cardiovascular disease and renal failure. Unfortunately, chronic complications of diabetes show a rising trend among the patients living longer. Diabetes, formerly thought to be a problem of glucose metabolism actually produces large number of micro and macro vascular complications. Patients with diabetes are characterized by an increased likelihood for developing congestive heart failure through coronary artery disease (CAD), hypertension, specific cardiomyopathy and endothelial dysfunction. Diabetic nephropathy is the leading cause of end-stage renal disease in developed countries and leads to a heavy burden of dialysis and transplantation. The risk of premature death in patients with diabetic nephropathy is increased by the factor of 40-100, and other complications such as retinopathy and neuropathy cluster in these patients. Lagerstroemia speciosa L (L. speciosa) (Lythracease), commonly known as Crepe Myrtle, a popular folk medicine, is a widely growing plant in tropical countries including Philippines, India, Malaysia, China and Australia. Tea, prepared from the leaves of L. speciosa has been used for the treatment of diabetes mellitus. The antihyperglycemic effect of L. speciosa has been demonstrated in animals and in in-vitro studies. The leaves of L speciosa contain large amount of corosolic acid, which has been shown to possess antidiabetic properties and we also estimated corosolic acid concentration in Petroleum ether fraction of MEL..%%%References p.234-277