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Copyright ©The Author(s) 2015. Published by Baishideng Publishing Group Inc. All rights reserved.
World J Diabetes. Aug 10, 2015; 6(9): 1097-1107
Published online Aug 10, 2015. doi: 10.4239/wjd.v6.i9.1097
Aloesin as a medical food ingredient for systemic oxidative stress of diabetes
Mesfin Yimam, Lidia Brownell, Qi Jia
Mesfin Yimam, Lidia Brownell, Qi Jia, Unigen, Inc., Seattle, WA 98121, United States
Author contributions: All authors contributed to this manuscript.
Conflict-of-interest statement: Mesfin Yimam, Lidia Brownell and Qi Jia are currently Unigen employees and therefore, have competing financial interests. In addition, Qi Jia is the co-inventor of US issued patent entitled 7-Hydroxy Chromones as Potent Anti-oxidant.
Open-Access: This article is an open-access article which was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Correspondence to: Mesfin Yimam, DVM, MS, Unigen, Inc., 3005 1st Ave, Seattle, WA 98121, United States. myimam@unigen.net
Telephone: +1-360-4868200 Fax: +1-360-4139135
Received: April 22, 2015
Peer-review started: April 22, 2015
First decision: May 13, 2015
Revised: July 1, 2015
Accepted: July 24, 2015
Article in press: July 27, 2015
Published online: August 10, 2015
Processing time: 114 Days and 15.1 Hours
Abstract

Diabetes is a chronic disease that requires a long term management where oxidative stress plays a pivotal role in disease progression and intensifying secondary complications. In spite of all the research on diabetes and recent advances in diabetes treatments, the reality is that there is no cure for diabetes and its devastating complications. While currently available anti-diabetic therapies are effective in reducing blood glucose level, they are not without associated side effects when they are used for a long term applications. As a result, physicians and patients are inclining more towards to a safer therapy with less serious side effects in the form of medicinal foods and botanical alternatives that are suitable for chronic usage. Aloesin, an Aloe chromone, has previously been formulated with an aloe polysaccharide to give a composition called Loesyn, where it showed significant impact in reducing glycosylated hemoglobin, fasting blood glucose, fructosamine and plasma insulin level in humans. Radical scavenging activities of chromones and polysaccharides from Aloe have also been reported. Here we rationalize the relevance of use of Aloesin alone or in a standardized blend with Aloe polysaccharides, as a potential medical food to manage systemic oxidative stress and/or high blood glucose of diabetes.

Keywords: Aloesin; Aloe polysaccharides; Diabetes; Oxidative stress; Medicinal food; Aloe chromone

Core tip: Diabetes has become epidemic in industrialized countries; Diabetes is a chronic disease with no cure; Oxidative stress plays a pivotal role in diabetes complication; Aloesin and aloe polysaccharides have strong free radical scavenging activities; Aloesin formulated with aloe polysaccharides has shown merits in diabetes management in human clinical trials; Aloesin formulated with aloe polysaccharides could have potentials in combating diabetes associated oxidative stress or to be used as an adjunct to pharmaceutical drugs.