Abstract

Mohamed Fahad Al-Ajmi

Fenugreek (Trigonella foenum-graceum) is an herbal medicine widely used in the traditional medicine to alleviate many diseases including diabetes. Many studies proved its efficacy in reducing blood sugar in diabetic patients. Concurrent administration of fenugreek and glibenclamide may affect bioavailability of glibenclamide. For this reason this study was designed to clarify effect of fenugreek ingestion on bioavailability of glibenclamide in beagle dogs. 4 beagle dogs were administered either glibenclamide alone or glibenclamide with fenugreek and bioavailability of glibenclamide in each of these groups was estimated utilizing HPLC-fluorescence detector method. The method was validated and the results were compared by paired t-test. The method of analysis was linear in the range from 5 to 400 ng/ml and possessed highly specificity and high intra and inter-day precision {1.80 to 9.16% and 5.82 to 10.40% respectively as C.V(%)}. Recovery of glibenclamide (relative to warfarin as IS) was 98.7 to 105.1%. Fenugreek ingestion increased bioavailability of glibenclamide significantly (p< 0.05) compared to control group. The exact mechanism of increased bioavailability of glibenclamide was not studied although literature review of fenugreek constituents points to possibility of increased absorption and/or displacement of glibenclamide from protein binding sites.