Effect of Oral Administration of Jerusalem Artichoke Inulin on Reducing Blood Lipid and Glucose in STZ-Induced Diabetic Rats

This study was carried out to investigate the effect of inulin extracted from Jerusalem artichoke (Helianthus tuberosus) on decrease of blood lipids and blood glucose in STZ-induced diabetic rats. The oral administration of inulin decreased blood lipids and blood glucose, implying the utility of artichoke-extracted inulin as a bioactive material to prevent metabolic diseases related to blood lipids and blood glucose of humans. Twenty four white rats were completely randomly allocated into to four treatment groups with six rat per group and inulin was orally administrated to them. The experimental treatment groups were divided into one Normal Control group (NC) and three diabetic groups. The diabetic groups consisted of DC (diabetic control group), DC 50 (diabetic control group+oral administration of inulin, 50 mg kg(-1) body weight) and DC 100 (diabetic control group+oral administration of inulin, 100 mg kg(-1) body weight). Concerning growth performance, in comparison with the DC group, daily weight gain. in the inulin-administered rats in. creased and recovered to the normal level. The diet intake was significantly low in the inulin-administrated groups (p<0.05) while statistically significant difference in the dietary efficiency between the DC and the inulin-administrated groups and between NC and the inulin-administrated groups was not found. Blood glucose was significantly lowered in the inulin-administrated groups (p<0.05). Compared with DC, the decrease of blood glucose in the inulin-administrated groups was 60.73-63.4% in the 4th week and showed a tendency of gradual recovery. Triacylglycerides in the blood, total cholesterol, LDLC and atherogenic index were significantly decreased by 27.13-32.91, 22.42-23.31, 35.41-38.28 and 49.71-57.11%, respectively in the inulin-administrated groups compared to the DC group. Conversely, HDLC was significantly in. creased by 24.89-47.20% (p<0.05). The weights of liver, kidney and heart but not the spleen were significantly heavy in the DC group, compared with the inulin-administrated groups (p<0.05).