The Effect of Ethyl Acetate Extract of Oleo-Gum- Resin of Ferula Assa-Foetida L. on Painful Diabetic Neuropathy in Adult Male Rats

Painful diabetic neuropathy is a wellknown and often progressive complication in both types of diabetes which does not respond well to thecommon pain medications. Using medicinal herbs can help to find new pain medications with more efficacy and less side effects. This study aimed to evaluate the effect of ethyl acetate extract of Asafoetida on painful diabetic neuropathy induced by streptozotocin (STZ)in adult male rats. Materials and Methods: In this experiment,40 male Wistar rats (230-280 g) were used.Diabetes was induced by intraperitoneal (ip) injection of single dose of STZ (60 mg/kg). Animals were randomly divided into five groups including: control, diabetic and 3diabetic groups were treated with the Asafoetida extract at dose of 25, 50, 100 mg/kg for 25 days. Toevaluate the neuropathic changes, Tail-flick and von- Frey tests were performed on post diabetic days (PDD) 0, 7, 14, 21 and 28, (P<0.05). Results: Behavioral results showed that, diabetic neuropathy was established in PDD 21. Asafoetida extract with the dose of 50 mg/kg (P<0.05) and 100 mg/kg (P<0.01) prevented the induction of thermal hyperalgesia, whereas this response was observed only for the dose of 100 mg/kg in the case of mechanical allodynia (P<0.05). In addition, blood glucose concentration in the extract treated groupswas decreased in a dose-dependent manner(P<0.05). Conclusion: Ethyl acetate extract of asafoetida can prevent the development of painful diabetic neuropathy. Further studies are required to identify the bioactive components present in this extract and their mechanismsof action in reducing diabetic neuropathic pain.