Nigerian Tea Treat Type 2 Diabetes

Researchers are attempting to develop a new treatment for type 2 diabetics with the help of a special Nigerian tea used as a treatment in traditional Nigerian medicine.

The tea is produced from the extract of rauvolfia vomitoria leaves and the fruit of citrus aurantium.

Scientists have recently tested the tea on patients with type 2 diabetes, and the results are promising.

The researchers have harvested the ingredients for the tea in africa, and produced the tea exactly as local healers would. The recipe is quite simple: boil the leaves, young stalks and fruit, and filter the liquid.

The researchers have recently completed a four month long clinical test on patients with type 2 diabetes, and found that there was a significant increase in glucose tolerance.

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Clinical Trials

The researchers have recently completed a four month long clinical test on 23 patients with type-2 diabetes and are more than satisfied with the result.

“The research subjects drank 750ml of tea each day. The [tea] appears to differentiate itself from other current type-2 diabetes treatments because the tea does not initially affect the sugar content of the blood. But after four months of treatment with tea we can, however, see a significant increase in glucose tolerance,” said postdoc Joan Campbell-Tofte from the University of Copenhagen.

Changes in fatty acid composition

The clinical tests show another pattern in the changes in fatty acid composition with the patients treated in comparison with the placebo group.

“In the patient group who drank the tea, the number of polyunsaturated fatty acids increased. That is good for the body’s cells because the polyunsaturated fat causes the cell membranes to be more permeable, which results in the cells absorbing glucose better from the blood,” said Joan Campbell-Tofte.

The researchers hope that new clinical tests and scientific experiments in the future will result in a new treatment for type-2 diabetics.

More at:

http://www.faqs.org/patents/app/20090041873
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/05/090505132224.htm