Investigations of preventive and ameliorative effects of Cucurbita maxima leaf supplemented diets on haematological parameters in STZ-induced diabetic albino rats

No effective treatment for diabetes has been found in medical science thus far. Anti-diabetic medications treat diabetes mellitus symptoms but not the underlying illness process. Some synthetic medications with anti-diabetic properties are already available for oral administration; they include synthetic hypoglycemia agents like sulfonylureas families. This study investigated the preventive and ameliorative effects of Cucurbita maxima leaf supplemented diets on haematological parameters in stz-induced diabetic albino rats. Sixty rats (60) were randomly distributed into 6(six) groups of five animals each (n= 5) for both preventive and ameliorative studies respectively. For preventive treatments, rats were supplemented with 5%, 10%, 15% and 20% Cucurbita maxima leaf for 28 days and diabetic was induced in week 4. Whereas, for the ameliorative treatments, diabetes was induced in week 0 and rats were supplemented for 28 days. The animals were sacrificed at the end of the experimental period and blood sample was collected for haematological evaluation. Consequently, the significant (p < 0.05) decrease in the levels of RBC, Hb and PCV observed in diabetic animals was drastically (p < 0.05)  increased in 10%, 15% and 20% supplemented groups in both preventive and ameliorative trials compared to STZ-induced diabetic control group. Similarly, the levels of MCH, MCV and MCHC in 5%, 10%, 15% and 20% groups rise significantly (p < 0.05) compared to STZ-induced diabetic control in the both experiments. Furthermore, the levels of WBC was significantly (p < 0.05) increased after supplementation with 10%, 15% and 20% of C. maxima leaf in the preventive and ameliorative experiments as compared to the STZ-induced diabetic control but was not significant at p < 0.05 when compared with the normal control. The results obtained through these investigations pointed to both preventive and ameliorative haematinic and erythropoietic potentials of Cucurbita maxima leaf in a diabetic state.