Effect of E. cardamomum on hyperglycemia

 Effect of E. cardamomum on

 hyperglycemia

Hyperglycemia is one of the risk factors of metabolic syndrome. Hyperglycemia can induce vascular inflammation (73), microvascular damage (74), and atherosclerosis (75). It also impairs the immune status by stimulating cell adhesion molecules and inflammatory cytokines besides inhibiting the function of leukocytes (76).

Cardamom can ameliorate high blood glucose, insulin resistance, and glucose metabolic disorders. E. cardamomum and its active constituents can control insulin secretion, insulin resistance through increasing the amount of SIRT1, PPAR-γ coactivator-1 alpha (PGC-1α), and attenuating the function of nuclear factor kappa-light-chain-enhancer of activated B cells (NF-κB) as well as controlling glucose metabolism by inhibiting α-glucosidase and α-amylase.

Relevant studies regarding the effect of cardamom on diabetes, insulin resistance, and glucose metabolism will be discussed below.

Clinical trials

A clinical trial demonstrated that administration of cardamom (3 g/day, 3 months) to a non-alcoholic fatty liver patient caused an increase in SIRT1 (from 1.2 to 1.3 ng/ml) (66). SIRT1 is responsible to regulate insulin secretion, insulin resistance, lipid/glucose/energy metabolism, inflammatory process, CVD, and kidney diseases (77). Moreover, SIRT1 can upregulate PGC-1α that inhibits NF-κB activation. It also impacts obesity, hepatic glucose production, insulin sensitivity (78), inhibits oxidative stress, and inflammation in pancreatic β-cells (79). On the other hand, NF-κB activation in adipose tissue macrophage of liver and muscle adipose tissue can contribute to the development of insulin resistance in these tissues (80). The administration of cardamom (3 g/day, 10 weeks) declined serum

 hemoglobin-A1C (HbA1C) (from 8.19 to 7.71 %), homeostatic model assessment-insulin resistance (HOMA-IR) (from 5.01 to 3.80), insulin (from 12.8 to 10.7 μIU/dl), TG levels (from 158.4 to 125.8 mg/dl), and elevated SIRT1 level (from 8.73 to 11.10 ng/dl) in overweight/obese T2DM patients (44). It was also observed that cardamom (3 g, 2 months) could increase insulin sensitivity (from 0.30 to 0.31 QUICKI) in pre-diabetic subjects (43)

Iran J Basic Med Sci. 2021 Nov;24(11):1462–1469. doi: 10.22038/IJBMS.2021.54417.12228

Roghayeh Yahyazadeh 1, Mahboobeh Ghasemzadeh Rahbardar 2, Bibi Marjan Razavi 1,3, Gholamreza Karimi 1,2, Hossein Hosseinzadeh 1,2,*