A drug based on garlic can treat diabetes types 1 and 2 when taken as a tablet. The drug, developed by researchers in Japan, combines allaxin, a compound found in garlic, with vanadium, a trace mineral. Both substances have been used in complementary medicine to stabilize blood sugar.
In previous research, Hiromu Sakurai of the Suzuka University of Medical Science, Japan, and his colleagues had discovered that the allaxin-vanadium amalgam lowered blood glucose levels when injected in mice with types 1 and 2 diabetes. In their recent study, published in the new Royal Society of Chemistry journal “Metallomics” they showed that a tablet is also effective at lowering blood glucose levels in both types of diabetes.
Currently, type 1 diabetes is treated with injections of insulin, often several times a day. Type 2 diabetes is usually treated with oral drugs (although some type 2 diabetics must use insulin), but the drugs come with undesirable side effects.
The researchers hope that their work will lead to an oral drug that will possibly eliminate daily shots for type 1 diabetics, and since the allaxin-vanadium tablet is made from natural components, it won’t have the side effects of current drugs used to treat type 2 diabetes.
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