I treated the rats with plant extracts (in a specific concentration) but am not getting the expected result. I have dissolved the plant extracts with their drinking water but still not got any good result though the plants are well known for the antidiabetic activity.
have the mice reduced their water intake since the addition of the plant extracts? are the extracts stable in water? i ask both of these questions because if they have reduced intake or the extracts are unstable in water the rats may not be getting the appropriate dose. You could gavage the rats with a known concentration of the extracts to be certain of the dose or have them compounded into their food source. If added into their food or water though you may want to track their daily intake to make sure they are getting the desired dose.
You shoul also assay the extract to be sure of it's chemical profile. How is the extract stored. If not stored properly some of the critical components could degrade.
Oral Gavaging works the best. However you need to get a hang of the technique or you could end up stressing your animal (totally a no no in a diabetic study). You should check the solubility of your extract. If its not soluble in water, try Tween. But check references for you plant and see what past researchers have used for their studies. Besides water i have found percentages of Tween to be helpful. I used to vortex my solution for 3 to 5 minutes to facilitate mixing.
You say your plant is a well known antidiabetic.... try increasing your dose or check your isolation protocol. May be there is some degradation of your bioactives occurring.
Oral gavage (made up to steel) will help in feeding the rats with your extracts perfectly. I got very good results when I used a steel gavage. Steel gavages are readily available from your regular chemical suppliers. Ask them for one.
But you need to be careful when using the gavage. It should enter the esophagus.....not the lungs. Once you place the tip of the gavage inside the mice/rats they will automatically swallow it deep enough... and by this you'll get you know the tip is in the esophagus.
All the best.
Sumana, Indumati is right. However I would also like to add that Infant feeding tubes, freely available at any pharmacy may also be used for aqueous based extracts. They are less rigid and offer a cheaper alternative. Gavaging needs practice. Once the animal has swallowed the gavage tube, introduce your sample at a slow rate. I say this because incase your tube has entered the lungs, bubbles will form at the nose. If you notice this withdraw immediately, and try again after a while.
In my opinion, that has relation with one of the reasons : the mode of admistration is not the appropriate one, so you have to try different modes of admistration (a drug can be beneficial by a mode and toxic by another one sometimes ! .. it can't have an effect by oral gavage for example, but it has an effect by intraperitoneal or intravascular injection .. etc). Another reason is the dose you have tried or even the quality of your extracts which depends on the method of extraction, conservation .. etc .. (by the way, you said that you've diluted the extract in drinking water, are you sure that your mice have taken all the dose ?... for that it's better to avoid that mode).
Best Regards.
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