Table II.

Effects of Ephedra sinica on biochemical parameters in obese diabetic mice.

	Normal	Control	Acarbose	Ephedra
Fasting blood glucose (mg/dl)
Week 1	61.1±9.80	61.3±3.70	57.3±13.60	56.8±16.60
Week 3	63.5±10.30e	79.7±13.00b	67.4±11.50	53.3±5.70f
Week 6	60.6±10.20e	82.8±18.20b	80.8±10.20b	56.2±9.70f
Oral glucose tolerance test (mg/dl)
0 min	60.6±10.20e	82.8±18.20b	80.8±10.20b	56.2±9.70f
30 min	179.1±44.30	224.6±66.20	176.1±27.20	138.6±18.50f
60 min	165.6±38.00d	216.6±50.80a	132.0±33.70f	102.8±16.80f
Lipid profile (mg/dl)
Total cholesterol	142.6±24.50	146.3±25.50	114.1±14.70	197.7±14.40c,f
TG	176.3±37.50a	233.0±59.70	135.0±43.60d	129.6±28.10e
HDL-cholesterol	131.6±14.40	109.1±29.50	113.7±15.70	149.9±22.20e
TG/HDL ratio	1.35±0.23f	2.51±0.81c	1.19±0.40f	0.87±0.19f
AST (mg/dl)	116.8±20.07	133.12±30.12	91.2±25.86d	90.8±16.83d
ALT (mg/dl)	27.9±4.70f	39.1±6.41c	23.9±4.81f	25.1±4.38f

Results are presented as the means ± SD. Normal, normal diet-fed mice; control, Surwit's high-fat and high-glucose diet-fed mice; acarbose, Surwit's high-fat and high-glucose diet containing acarbose-fed mice; Ephedra, Surwit's high-fat and high-glucose diet containing Ephedra-fed mice. AST, aspartate transaminase; ALT, alanine transaminase.

^ap<0.05,

^bp<0.01,

^cp<0.001 compared to the normal group;

^dp<0.05,

^ep<0.01,

^fp<0.001 compared to the control group.