Pumpkin Extracts: Potential Alternative/Replacement to Insulin?

Filed in archive Challenges , Research , Treatment on July 9, 2007

So you thought pumpkins are only useful in fairy tales and on halloween? Not anymore, in fact pumpkin could potentially be the "godmother" of insulin replacement or alternative that people with insulin dependent-diabetes may find beneficial as well.

Pumpkin extracts have been found to promote the regeneration of damaged pancreatic cells in diabetic rats, thereby boosting levels of insulin-producing beta cells and insulin in the blood. Making these pumpkin compounds a potential replacement, if not reduce a diabetic's daily insulin injection.

A group, led by Tao Xia of the East China Normal University, found that diabetic rats fed the extract had only 5% less plasma insulin and 8% fewer insulin-positive (beta) cells compared to normal healthy rats (Journal of the Science of Food and Agriculture, 87(9) 1753-7 2007).

Xia says: 'pumpkin extract is potentially a very good product for pre-diabetic persons, as well as those who have already developed diabetes.' He adds that although insulin injections will probably always be necessary for these patients, pumpkin extract could drastically reduce the amount of insulin they need to take.

Such protective effect of pumpkin is thought to be due to both antioxidants and D-chiro-inositol - a molecule that mediates insulin activity.

But of course, this has to progress into human testing in order to see if such effects can be translated in diabetic humans.

Anyway, in case proven effective, I guess this has to be as effective as insulin (if not more), should have no harmful side effects, and most importantly, should be less expensive than insulin and should be not administered by injection - otherwise (or in case the world has run out of insulin resources!) why would you pick this over insulin, right?

Find more details from the full report.