African Tea May Treat Type 2 Diabetes

COPENHAGEN—Researchers at the University of Copenhagen Faculty of Pharmaceutical Sciences are attempting to develop a new treatment for type 2 diabetes from the extract of an African tea. The tea is used as a treatment in traditional Nigerian medicine and is produced from the extract of Rauvolfia Vomitoria leaves and the fruit of Citrus aurantium.

A 4-month clinical test on 23 patients with type 2 diabetes showed a pattern in the changes in fatty acid composition with the patients treated in comparison with the placebo group.

'The research subjects drank 750 ml of tea each day. The cure appears to differentiate itself from other current type 2 diabetes treatments because the tea does not initially affect the sugar content of the blood. But after four months of treatment with tea we can, however, see a significant increase in glucose tolerance,” said one researcher.