Abstract: This study was carried out to investigate the antidiabetic activities and mechanism of mangiferin in alloxan-induced diabetic mice.Adult male ICR mice were injected with a single dose of alloxan 60 mg/kg body weight though tail vein to induce diabetic animals.Mangiferin was administered intragastrically at a dose of 12.5,25.0 and 50.0 mg/kg to diabetic mice for four weeks.Metformin treated diabetic mice were served as positive control.The levels of blood glucose were monitored weekly.At the end of experiment,blood glucose,serum insulin,triglyceride and total cholesterol levels were determined,the glycogen contents of hepatic and skeletal muscle were also measured.The pancreatic islet and β-cell were identified by staining with hematoxylin eosin (HE) and aldehydefuchsin.After 4 weeks administration,mangiferin (25.0,50.0 mg/kg) significantly declined the levels of blood glucose,serum triglyceride and total cholesterol,and increased the contents of muscle and hepatic glycogen,compared with the untreated diabetic mice.However,mangiferin was unable to significantly increase the level of serum insulin and the number of pancreatic islet and β-cell.These results suggested that mangiferin possessed antidiabetic activities in alloxan-induced diabetic mice.The mechanism was related to improve synthesis of muscle and hepatic glycogen,increase the body’s use of glucose.In addition,mangiferin also had the regulating effect on the disorder of lipid metabolism.

Key words: mangiferin, alloxan-induced diabetic mice, hypoglycemic effect