Effect on hyperglycemia and pancreas cells of chaya aqueous extracts from two different regions in streptozotocin-induced diabetes rats

Cnidoscolus chayamansa is a native plant of the Mayan region, which is also cultivated in other places like northern Mexico, Tunisia and India. Many properties are attributed to Mayan Chaya, such as aid in the control of glycemia in diabetics. Thus this study aimed to evaluate the hypoglycemic effects of chaya aqueous extracts in a model of streptozotisin-induced diabetic Wistar rats. Chaya aqueous extracts were collected from plants cultivated in Quinta Roo (Mayan region) and Durango (northern Mexico), and in this study we compare their effect with metformin (as a control). Additionally, we compared the extracts mass profiles from both regions by high-resolution liquid chromatography coupled to a triple quadrupole tandem mass detector (HPLC-MS/MS QQQ). Finally, a study of the pancreatic tissue was carried out to evaluate the effects of the extracts on the Langerhans islets. Both extracts showed a good hypoglycemic effect after two weeks of treatment, and the Langerhans islets showed a partial recovery due to the effect of the treatment. Although the plants were cultivated at a distance of 2,350 km and under different weather, the compounds found in both did not show significant differences.