Fenugreek Improves Diet-induced Metabolic Disorders in Rats

Trigonella foenum-graecum L. (fenugreek) has been described earlier and its use in ancient medicinal practice is well known. The hypogly- cemic eff ects of fenugreek have been studied in many animal models and diabetic patients. The purpose of this study was to examine the pre- ventive effi ciency of dietary fenugreek on diet- induced metabolic diseases in rats. The diets used in this study were a standard diet, a high- fat high-sucrose (HFS) diet, and a HFS diet con- taining 0.5 g/kg b. w./day fenugreek based on the modifi ed version of the AIN-93G purifi ed diet, for 12 weeks, respectively. The rats fed the HFS diet containing fenugreek showed signifi cantly lower fasting insulin levels and HOMA-IR than the rats fed the HFS diet. Therefore, fenugreek improved insulin sensitivity in rats. The triglyceride and total cholesterol levels in the plasma were sig- nifi cantly lower in the fenugreek-administered group. Moreover, distinct reductions of triglyc- eride, total cholesterol, free fatty acid, and phos- pholipid levels in the liver were found in the rats fed the HFS diet containing fenugreek. These results suggest that fenugreek enhanced insu- lin sensitivity at least partly by improving lipid metabolism disorders in the plasma and the liver in the rats induced by the HFS diet.