Radix Astragali is one of the most widely used medicinal herbs in Asian traditional medicine, and polysaccharides had been identified as the mainly bioactive ingredient in it. The aim of this study was to evaluate the hypoglycemic effects of polysaccharides from Radix Astragali (RAP) on alloxan-induced diabetic mice. Diabetic mice were randomly divided into five groups: diabetic control, positive drug control, low, moderate, and high-dose RAP treated group. Meanwhile, normal mice were used as the control. RAP treated group received different doses of RAP (100, 200, and 400 mg/kg) via oral gavage once a day for 4 weeks. The effects of RAP on body weight, blood glucose, glucose tolerance and serum insulin were investigated. The results showed that RAP significantly increased body weights, glucose tolerance, and serum insulin levels, while decreasing blood glucose levels of diabetic mice. These findings suggest that RAP possesses hypoglycemic effects.
