EFFECT OF GYMNEMA SYLVESTRE ON THE PHARMACOKINETICS OF SITAGLIPTIN PHOSPHATE IN TYPE II DIABETES MELLITUS

Practising complementary and alternative medicinal therapy has become a boom worldwide. There is a dearth in communication between doctors and the patients regarding concomitant use of complementary medicines like ayurvedic churnas and other drugs of natural origin with allopathic drugs. This usage might magnify or oppose the effect of synthetic drug leading to interactions. Use of herbals along with allopathic treatment is inevitable in treatment of chronic diabetes which might lead to drug interaction. The present study was undertaken to evaluate pharmacokinetic interaction between herb Gymnema sylvestre and allopathic drug Sitagliptin Phosphate in streptozotocin and high fat diet-induced type II diabetes mellitus in rat model. Female Sprague Dawley rats were grouped into following groups. Group 1: Vehicle Control (VC), Group 2: Disease Control (DC), Group 3: Sitagliptin Phosphate (STG) (20 mg/kg), Group 4: Gymnema sylvestre (GYM) (400 mg/kg), Group 5: Sitagliptin Phosphate (20 mg/kg) and Gymnema sylvestre (400 mg/kg) (STG + GYM). After giving proper treatment to the rats, blood samples were withdrawn from retro-orbital plexus at 0^th, 2^nd, 4^th, 8^th and 12^th hours on first day of treatment with Sitagliptin Phosphate and combination of Sitagliptin Phosphate with Gymnema sylvestre in order to check alteration in absorption parameter by determining the change in area under curve (AUC) of STG, using a newly developed and validated HPTLC method. It was found that, AUC of STG gradually decreased in presence of Gymnema sylvestre at the given dose. Further studies need to be carried out at various other doses to evaluate possible interactions.