A clinical study of the anti-diabetic effect of a simple Chinese herbal formula, PSP-1

Introduction: A two armed clinical before and after study was conducted to investigate the efficacy of a proprietary Chinese herbal formula, PSP-1, to improve glycemic control in type 2 diabetic patients and pre-diabetic subjects over a 3 month period. Methods: Sixty-two subjects were recruited and divided into a Diabetic Group (DG) and a Pre-diabetic Group (PG). All subjects were prescribed PSP-1 or placebo and followed-up for 3 months. Blood and spot urine samples were collected at baseline, 1st month and 3rd month for each subject for laboratory tests. Results: For the DG group, PSP-1 subjects showed significant decrease in blood HbA1c level between baseline and 3 months post PSP-1 (p < 0.005), but there was no significant change in fasting plasma glucose concentration. PSP-1 subjects in the PG group showed a significant decrease in both fasting glucose (p < 0.05) and HbA1c (p = 0.001) after 3-months' treatment. Combining PG and DG groups, a significant decrease in HbA1c was observed for PSP subjects between baseline and 3 months post PSP. Comparison with those on placebo demonstrated no significant changes in either HbA1c level or glucose concentrations. Conclusions: It appeared that 3 months supplementation of PSP-1 formulation was able to reduce blood glucose concentrations in pre-diabetic subjects and lowered blood HbA1c levels for both pre-diabetic and diabetic subjects. (C) 2016 Elsevier GmbH. All rights reserved.