Investigating Therapeutic Potential of Trigonella foenum-graecum L. as Our Defense Mechanism against Several Human Diseases

Table 1

(a) Different pharmacological activities in vivo. (b) Different pharmacological activities in vitro.

(a)

Activity	Dose	Content	Mode of application	Vehicle	Parameters	Reference
Anticancer	200 mg/kg b.wt	Flavonoids	—	Aqueous and olive oil	Inhibition of the mammary hyperplasia	[35]
	100 mg/kg and 200 mg/kg b.wt	—	Intraperi-; toneal	Ethanolic	Alterations of ascites cells	[36]
	25–800 mg/kg b.wt	Saponins, flavonoids, alkaloids, and galactomannans	Oral	Methanol	General: tumor incidence; biochemical: liver GSH and LPO	[39]
	2 g/kg b.wt	Saponins, flavonoids, and fiber	Oral	—	Inhibition of colon carcinogenesis by modulating glucuronidase and mucinase activity	[41]
Antidiabetic	0.44–1.74 g/kg⋅d	—	Oral	Aqueous	Reduction in blood glucose and improvement of hemorheological properties	[20]
	50 mg/kg b.wt and 100 mg/kg b.wt	—	Oral	Water	Decrease in blood glucose	[23]
	0.5 g/kg b.wt	—	Oral	Alcoholic	Reduction of blood glucose level	[62]
	1 g/kg b.wt	—	Oral	Aqueous and methanolic	Hypoglycemic effect	[63]
Anticholesterol/; hypocholesterolemic	0.44–1.74 g/kg⋅d	—	Oral	Aqueous	Reduction in blood lipid levels	[20]
	100 mg/kg b.wt	—	Oral	Water	Decrease in serum lipids	[23]
	0.5 g/kg	—	—	—	Decrease in triglycerides and total cholesterol	[43]
	30 or 50 g ethanol extract/kg b.wt	Saponins	Oral	Ethanol	Reductions in plasma cholesterol levels	[62]
Anti-inflammatory	50–200 mg/kg b.wt	—	—	Aqueous	Stimulatory effect on immune system	[64]
	150 mg/kg b.wt	—	—	Ethanolic	Effective against acute and chronic inflammation	[65]
Antioxidant	0.4 g/kg b.wt	—	Oral	—	Reduction in the level of serum MDA	[66]
	0.11 g/kg b.wt	—	—	—	Decrease in SOD activity	[67]
	0.4 g/kg b.wt	Flavonoids and polyphenols	Oral	Aqueous	Decrease in the level of MDA	[68]
Antimicrobial		Flavonoids		Aqueous	Inhibition of E. coli and M. furfur	[55]
				Aqueous, methanolic, and ethanolic	Methanolic and ethanolic extracts were effective against E. coli, S. typhi, and S. aureus	[69]

(b)

Activity	Dose	Constituent	Vehicle	Parameters	Reference
Antioxidant	20–100 μg/mL	Polyphenols	Methanol	Scavenging hydroxyl radical, DPPH, abts, changes in LPO, SOD, and inhibition of H2O2 induced lipid peroxidation	[27]
	25–200 mg/mL	Flavonoids and alkaloids	Ethanolic	Scavenging DPPH and inhibition of lipid peroxidation	[65]
Anticancer				Induction of apoptosis in HT-29 human colon cancer cells	[30]
		Diosgenin		Inhibition of cell proliferation in the human osteosarcoma 1547 cell line	[38]
		Diosgenin	Chloroform	Killed MCF-7 human immortalized breast cells	[40]
			Ethanolic	Cytotoxic to breast cancer cell line and prostate cancer cell line
Antidiabetic	0.33 and/or 3.3 mg/mL	Saponin, sapogenin, diosgenin, and trigonelline	Ethanolic	Inhibition of glucose uptake	[70]
	1 gm/day	4-Hydroxyisoleucine	Hydro-; alcoholic	Direct pancreatic β-cell stimulation, delayed gastric emptying, and inhibition of glucose transport	[71]
	5–20 mM	—	Aqueous	Reduction in of d(+)-glucose uptake	[72]
Anti-inflammatory		Saponin	Methanolic	Inhibition of TNF-α in THP-1 cell lines and restrained synthesis of melanin in murine melanoma B16F-1 cells	[48]
		Steroidal saponin	Aqueous	Peroxyl radical scavenging effects and reduction of release of ROS from inflamed mucosa	[73]
Antimicrobial	16–128 mg/mL	Essential oil	Methanolic and acetone	Antimicrobial activity against Pseudomonas spp. and E. coli	[53]
	100 mg	Defensin		Inhibits the mycelial spread of Rhizoctonia solani	[57]