The Humble Pumpkin Could End The Need For People With Diabetes To Have Insulin Injections

According to a preliminary new study from China, compounds found in the vegetable could potentially replace or drastically cut the daily number of injections for diabetics, a new study published yesterday in the journal Chemistry and Industry suggests.

Research showed that pumpkin extract promotes regeneration of damaged pancreatic cells in diabetic rats, boosting levels of insulin-producing beta cells and insulin in the blood.

A group at East China Normal University found diabetic rats fed the extract had only 5per cent less plasma insulin and 8per cent fewer insulin-positive (beta) cells than healthy rats.

Research leader Tao Xia said: "Pumpkin extract is potentially a very good product for pre-diabetic persons, as well as those who already have diabetes."

Insulin injections would probably still be necessary but the extract would seriously reduce the amount of insulin they had to take, he added.

David Bender, sub-dean at the Royal Free and University College Medical School in London, told the journal: "This research is very exciting.

"The main finding is that feeding pumpkin extract prevents the progressive destruction of pancreatic beta-cells ... but it is impossible to say whether pumpkin extract would promote regeneration in humans. I think the exciting thing is that this may be a source of medication that could be taken by mouth."

The protective effect of pumpkin is thought to be due to antioxidants and D-chiroinositol, a molecule that mediates insulin activity.

The researchers studied rats. It's too soon to know if the findings apply to people. Normally, people control blood sugar naturally through a hormone called insulin, which is made by certain cells in the pancreas. But in type 1 diabetes, the body's immune system mistakenly attacks those pancreatic cells. That wrecks the insulin-making process, leaving blood sugar uncontrolled without insulin shots.

The Chinese study suggests that Asian pumpkin extract may help protect those pancreatic cells from the ravages of type 1 diabetes. The findings appear in July's Journal of the Science of Food and Agriculture.

Pumpkin Extract vs. Diabetes?

The researchers included Tao Xia, PhD, of East China Normal University in Shanghai, China.

First, the scientists bought whole, mature Asian pumpkins -- popularly called shark fin melon or Siam pumpkin -- at a Shanghai market. Those pumpkins don't look like the orange pumpkins common in the U.S. Instead, they've got a green and white rind.

The researchers took the pumpkins back to their lab, removed the seeds, dried the fruit, and concocted a pumpkin extract.

Next, the researchers mixed the pumpkin extract with water and fed it to rats for a month. Some of the rats had type 1 diabetes; other rats weren't diabetic.

After a month of consuming the pumpkin extract daily, the diabetic rats lowered their high blood sugar. The pumpkin extract didn't affect the blood sugar of the rats that weren't diabetic.

The researchers also compared diabetic rats that ate the pumpkin extract for a month with diabetic rats that didn't get the pumpkin extract.

Healthy, insulin-making pancreatic cells were more abundant in the diabetic rats that ate the pumpkin extract than in the diabetic rats that never consumed the pumpkin extract.

The pumpkin extract may help save some -- but not all -- of those insulin-making pancreatic cells or revive diabetes-damaged pancreatic cells, according to the researchers.

The pumpkin extract didn't affect the insulin-making pancreatic cells of nondiabetic rats.

The study doesn't identify what chemical or chemicals in the pumpkin extract may have been responsible for the results. Antioxidants in pumpkin may have played a role, the scientists suggest.

Diabetes is estimated to affect more than 230 million people, almost 6 per cent of the world's population, according to the World Diabetes Foundation.

The rats used in the study represented type I diabetes.

PA

Sources:

News.com.au
http://www.news.com.au/story/0,23599,22038975-2,00.html

WebMD: Asian Pumpkin Fights Type 1 Diabetes?
http://diabetes.webmd.com/news/20070709/pumpkin-benefit-for-type-1-diabetes