by Brooke Bunch

Xiao Chen, Ph.D., may hold the secret ingredient to the future of diabetic medication. Chen, an associate professor of biomedical sciences at the College of Osteopathic Medicine and principal investigator at Edison Biotechnology Institute, will discuss his research on banaba plants at a Tuesday, Feb. 8, seminar entitled “Anti-diabetic Compounds from Natural Sources.”

Chen’s presentation is part of the Appalachian Rural Health Institute Diabetes/Endocrine Center monthly Research Seminars. The seminars take place the second Tuesday of the month. The center was founded to further diabetes research, clinical training and care, and education.

The seminars provide a forum for Ohio University researchers to learn about each other’s work and, hopefully, open the door to more interdisciplinary and interdepartmental research collaborations, says Frank Schwartz, M.D., director of the center and OU-COM associate professor of endocrinology.

“I think his work has exciting implications for future application in patients to prevent Type 2 diabetes,” says Schwartz.

According to Chen, the leaves of the banaba plant — a tropical plant from Southeast Asia — have the potential to lower glucose and inhibit fat growth simultaneously in diabetes patients, a great feat considering 90 percent of all diabetes is weight-related Type 2 diabetes.

“More than 80 percent of Type 2 diabetes patients in this country are overweight or obese,” says Chen. “So it’s particularly beneficial to these patients that we find medicine that can reduce blood sugar without promoting weight gain.” 

But according to Chen, the majority of diabetic medication on the market is “glucose-lowering and weight-gain promoting.” So the discovery of a natural medication may provide a better alternative to treating diabetes and diabetes-related concerns.

“More and more people in the U.S. are overweight and diabetic,” Chen says. “The Center for Disease Control and Prevention recently says that one-third of all children born in 2000 in the U.S. will develop Type 2 diabetes in their lifetime. This is alarming.”

The anti-diabetic “medication,” derived from crushed banaba leaves, can be ingested as an herbal tea or as a pure compound isolated from the leaves.  In either form, the anti-diabetic addresses high-blood glucose and body weight at the same time.

“This compound is insulin-like and orally deliverable.  It has the potential to eventually become a diabetic drug,” says Chen, who has been working on this research for six years. The research has been conducted on animal cells and in diabetic and obese animals. Chen has published two articles on his research in the Journal of Nutrition.

“My research goal is to understand how these polyphenolic compounds, which are actually in our daily diet, work at molecular levels and to develop these compounds into an anti-diabetic drug, without the side effect of promoting weight gain,” Chen says.

Banaba leaves have been used by Filipinos for years to treat diabetes and kidney disease. In Japan it also is used as a health drink.

“At least one-third of the drugs we developed came from natural sources,” Chen says. “Nature is a rich source for finding novel compounds for combating different diseases.”

Chen will make his presentation in Grosvenor West 111 from 11:30 a.m. to 1 p.m.

For more information about the monthly seminars, please contact Nancy Wilcox at (740) 593-9350 or email, wilcoxn@ohio.edu.