Clove (Syzygium aromaticum) ameliorates oxidative stress-induced inflammation and improves reverse cholesterol transport and paraoxonase 1 activity in diabetic rats

Diabetes is a group of metabolic diseases characterized by hyperglycemia resulting from defects in insulin secretion, insulin action, or both. The chronic hyperglycemia of diabetes is associated with long-term damage, dysfunction, and failure of various organs. Accordingly, in the current study we have investigated the effect of clove on lipid metabolism, and on oxidative stress-induced inflammation response in diabetic rats. Diabetes was induced intraperitonially by a single injection of streptozotocin (STZ). The treated group received daily orally clove extract, for 4 weeks. Daily treatment by clove lowered significantly blood glucose, HbA1c levels and ameliorates the lipid profiles and showed increased PON1 activity. The study of lipid peroxidation showed that, the treatment with clove decreased TBARS levels in LDL fraction and in pancreas. Furthermore, in pancreas TNF-alpha and IL-1β levels were decreased in treated group. These results were confirmed by the histopathological assessments which clove treatment showed marked improvement of the destructive effect on pancreas islet cells induced by STZ. The present findings clearly demonstrated that clove could prevent many diabetic complications by reducing inflammation and oxidative damage. Thus, the effectiveness of clove in treating diabetes potentially may possibly due to presence of bioactive compounds.