Diabetes research goes unnoticed

KOLKATA: A new research that gives the city a trumpet to blow for contributing towards a side-effect-free treatment for diabetes got silenced amid umpteen lectures and PowerPoint presentations made on World Diabetes Day recently. A paper by a Jadavpur University research scholar showed that apigenin, a flavonoid compound, effectively reduces high blood sugar.
“Apigenin is present in many fruits and vegetables. A drug made of it would be different from those made of synthetic compounds that have side-effects,” said Chowdhury Mobaswar Hossain, who submitted his PhD thesis titled ‘Anti-diabetic potential of Apigenin: It’s mechanistic approach’ recently.
Apigenin is abundantly present in chamomile tea, grapefruits, onions, oranges and some spices such as parsley and is also found in higher levels in celery, yarrow, tarragon, cilantro, foxglove, coneflower, licorice, flax, passion flower, horehound, spearmint, basil, and oregano. Apigenin is also found in red wine and beer.
Hailing from Rampurhat, Hossain, an MPharm gold medalist and Inspire Senior Research Fellow of the Centre’s department of science and technology, said, “The anti-diabetic potential of apigenin has been established using the rat model. Further research is needed before the compound can be put to clinical trial in humans. If successful, drugs made from apigenin will be free of side-effects and also cost less than existing ones as the compound is available naturally.”
Hossain’s research showed that apigenin reduces complications of diabetes on vital organs like the kidneys, liver, pancreas, eyes and blood vessels which are damaged by the disease. Besides, it also established a correlation between diabetes and liver cancer. Impressed with his research, the University of Florida has invited Hossain to do his post-doctoral research on ‘development of a new drug in oral cardiosis (fungal infection) developed during HIV and cancer.