In the February 2008 issue of the medical journal diabetes care there is a report of a clinical trial of a “new” Ayurvedic herb for type 2 diabetes, Coccinia cordifolia.
Also know as koval or ivy gourd, this herb belongs to the same plant family as the more well-known bitter melon. Koval is a common Indian and Bangladeshi plant that grows on the Indian subcontinent like kudzu grows in the southern United States.
Koval grows huge tubers that anchor him to the ground, then spreads vines in all directions. Unlike kudzu, it has white, trumpet-shaped flowers that produce fruit that is zucchini-shaped but purplish-red in color. Ayurvedic medicine has used the fruit and leaves for centuries as a treatment for diabetes, but this study is the first detailed clinical trial.
Since Ayurvedic practitioners typically recommend “a handful” of dried leaves and minced gourd prepared into a tea, researchers at St. John’s National Academy of Health Sciences in Bangalore prepared a standardized extract of 15 grams of the dried herb. . They then gave the extract or a placebo to 60 newly diagnosed type 2 diabetics for 60 days.
If you’re familiar with the way most prescription diabetes drugs work (many of them promote weight gain), you’ll be impressed by the finding that people who took the herb not only didn’t gain weight, but actually there was a slight tendency to gain weight. loss (less than 0.1 kilo, or quarter pound, per month). There was also a very slight trend toward slimmer waists and narrower hips (again, a few millimeters, tenths, or an inch), all without any change in food eaten or total calories. Body fat percentages, however, increased very slightly.
And as you may have read in other natural health headlines, the Ayurvedic herb definitely lowered blood sugar levels.
At the start of the study, the average fasting blood sugar in the test group was 132 mg/dL, and the average postprandial (after eating) blood sugar was 183 mg/dL.
The effects of the herb gradually increased over 90 days. By the end of the third month of the clinical trial, the average fasting blood glucose among the diabetics taking the herb had fallen to 111 mg/dL, while the diabetics not taking the herb actually had morning blood glucose levels. slightly higher. In the group of diabetics who received the herb, postprandial (after eating) blood sugar levels dropped to an average of below 150 mg/dl. The improvement in blood sugar levels was confirmed by an average drop of 0.6 percent in HbA1C.
The researchers noted that similar percentages of diabetics given the herb (94 percent) and diabetics given the placebo (93 percent) were able to adhere to their diabetic diets. The difference in blood sugar levels was due to the herb. It is also important to note that the diabetics taking the herb did not take any of the diabetes medications commonly prescribed in North America, Australia, New Zealand, or the United Kingdom, and that they did not have blood sugar levels requiring immediate use of insulin.
Then how Coccinia cordifolia work?
Researchers don’t know for sure, but it appears that some chemical in the herb is an insulin mimetic. In other words, this as-yet-unidentified compound works in the same way that insulin does to remove glucose from the bloodstream, but it doesn’t work in the same way that insulin does to move triglycerides into starved fat cells.
Is a koval extract for type 2 diabetes coming soon to a natural health retailer near you? Just ask at any specialty Ayurvedic herbal retailer or anywhere the patented Gencinia extract is sold. It is now available. If you take the herb, use 15g (about half an ounce) daily to make a tea, drink it lukewarm after brewing in a closed teapot for 15 minutes. If using a 15:1 dry extract, use 1,000 mg (1 g) per day.
If you have relatively mild type 2 diabetes and are monitoring your blood sugar levels every day and avoiding carbs, this herb is definitely worth a try.