Saturday Aug 2, 2014 (foodconsumer.org) -- Researchers at Universidade Federal de São Paulo in Diadema, SP, Brasil have recently published a study indicating that Ginkgo biloba helps type 2 diabetes mellitus by improving the insulin signaling cascade.

Ginkgo biloba has been identified as an effective medicine for the treatment of type 2 diabetes mellitus.  The current study offers evidence revealing the mechanism as to how the Chinese herb can help fight diabetes mellitus in obese rats.

For the study, some rats were fed a high fat diet while some others were fed a normal fat diet for eight weeks.  After this feeding period, some rats on the high fat diet were supplemented with 500 mg per kg and some with placebo.  All rats fed the normal fat diet did not receive any supplemental intervention.

The high fat diet was found to promote loss of insulin sensitivity and significantly increased body adiposity, plasma triacylglycerol, and glucose levels.

Treatment with Ginkgo biloba significantly reduced food intake and body adiposity and prevented hyperglycemia and dyslipidemia in obese rats fed the high fat diet.

Ginkgo biloba also enhanced insulin sensitivity by regulating the components in the insulin signaling cascade.

The study concluded "G. biloba might be efficient in preventing and treating obesity-induced insulin signaling impairment."(David Liu)

Banin RM, Hirata BK, Andrade IS, Zemdegs JC, Clemente AP, Dornellas AP, Boldarine VT, Estadella D, Albuquerque KT, Oyama LM, Ribeiro EB, Telles MM.  Beneficial effects of Ginkgo biloba extract on insulin signaling cascade, dyslipidemia, and body adiposity of diet-induced obese rats.  Braz J Med Biol Res. 2014 Jul 25;0:0.