Development and evaluation of herbal tea for the management of diabetes mellitus using novel combination of herbal ingredients

Introduction: The present study was aimed at the development of an antidiabetic dietary supplement in the form of herbal tea comprising green tea, gudmar, and asparagus followed by its evaluation by physical, chemical, and in vitro biological studies. Materials and Methods: Individual raw materials of all the three selected crude drugs were standardized for extractable matter, foreign organic matter, heavy metals, and microbial contamination. Flavonoid content, tannin content, in vitro non-enzymatic hemoglobin glycosylation, and α-amylase inhibition assays were also carried out as per standard methods. Standardized powdered materials of Camellia sinensis (tea), Gymnema sylvestre (gudmar), and Asparagus racemosus were blended in different ratios and evaluated for antioxidant activity by DPPH, O-Phenanthroline, superoxide radical scavenging, and nitric oxide radical scavenging assays. Results and Discussion: Of all the ratios, the batch 1 having 600, 250, and 150 of each of tea, gudmar, and asparagus, respectively, showed better antioxidant activity with an IC₅₀ value of 130.36, 564, and 296 in the superoxide, O-Phenanthroline, and DPPH radical scavenging assays, respectively. The ratio of the combination was based on the results of α-amylase inhibitory assay (gymnema: 109.17 ± 2.0 and tea: 282.32 ± 2.1) and hemoglycosylation activity (gymnema: 595.09 ± 1.8; tea: 400.64 ± 1.6; asparagus: 391.1 ± 2.3) of individual drugs. Conclusion: From our study, it was observed that the herbal tea made by green tea, gudmar, and asparagus had a hemoglycosylation and α-amylase inhibition activities and showed balanced good antioxidant activity and therefore concluded as perfect supplement for diabetic patients.