Moringa oleifera Leaf Supplementation as a Glycemic Control Strategy in Subjects with Prediabetes
What this study found
MO leaf powder supplementation for 12 weeks improved glycemic control in prediabetes vs placebo. Fasting blood glucose declined in MO and rose in placebo; HbA1c declined in MO and rose in placebo; the rate of change differed significantly between groups (treatment × visit). Insulin rose in both groups; no significant between-group differences in insulin change or HOMA-IR. About 58% of MO participants showed HbA1c improvement vs 38% in placebo. No meaningful changes in gut microbiota, hepatic or renal function markers, or appetite hormones. Authors conclude MO may act as a natural…
- Study & population
- Double-blind, randomized, placebo-controlled, parallel-group clinical trial in adults aged 40-70 with prediabetes (ADA criteria: HbA1c 5.7-6.4% or fasting glucose 100-125 mg/dL or 2-h glucose 140-199 mg/dL) who had never used drugs for glycemic control.
- Intervention
- MO leaf powder, 400 mg per capsule; 6 capsules per day (total 2400 mg/day); taken before each main meal (before breakfast, lunch, and dinner); duration 12 weeks.
- Key limitation
- Small sample size with high inter-individual variability leading to limited statistical power for some outcomes; 12-week duration may be insufficient to capture long-term effects; baseline HbA1c was near-normal, which may limit magnitude of detectable effects; exploratory analyses identifying predictors of HbA1c…
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Open PDFOriginal abstract
Moringa oleifera (MO) is a multipurpose plant with a high polyphenol content, which is being increasingly consumed to lessen the risk of chronic metabolic diseases such as Type 2 diabetes; however, scientific evidence from clinical trials is scarce. A double-blind, randomized, placebo-controlled, parallel group intervention study with MO leaves as a food supplement was conducted in subjects with prediabetes. They consumed six daily capsules of MO dry leaf powder (2400 mg/day) (MO, n = 31) or placebo (PLC, n = 34) over 12 weeks. Glycemia, appetite-controlling hormones and gut microbiota composition were studied. ANCOVA with the fixed factor “treatment” and the basal value as covariate was used to compare the change score between the groups. The results showed significant differences between groups in the rate of change of fasting blood glucose (FBG) and glycated hemoglobin (HbA1c), which showed opposite directions during the intervention, decreasing in MO and increasing in PLC. No different change scores were found between the groups in microbiota, hepatic and renal function markers or the appetite-controlling hormones measured. In conclusion, MO supplementation resulted in favorable changes in glycaemia markers compared to placebo in the subjects with prediabetes studied, suggesting that MO might act as a natural antihyperglycemic agent.