Taxifolin Dependently Lowers Glucose in Type 2 Diabetic Patients

We investigated whether Pycnogenol has a glucose-lowering effect because of personal verbal communication from patients reporting no need for insulin following supplementation with Pycnogenol.

Fasting blood glucose was lowered dose dependently until a dose of 200 mg Pycnogenol was administered. Increasing the dose from 200 to 300 mg did not further decrease blood glucose. Compared with baseline, 100–300 mg lowered fasting glucose significantly from 8.64 ± 0.93 to 7.54 ± 1.64 mmol/l (P < 0.05). Fifty milligrams of Pycnogenol lowered postprandial glucose significantly from 12.47 ± 1.06 to 11.16 ± 2.11 mmol/l (P < 0.05). Maximum decrease of postprandial glucose was observed with 200 mg to 10.07 ± 2.69 mmol/l; 300 mg had no stronger effect.

This dose-finding study encourages further mechanistic and clinical studies with Pycnogenol to explore its potential in obtaining metabolic control in patients with mild type 2 diabetes. A double-blind placebo-controlled study with 77 patients confirmed the glucose-lowering effect of Pycnogenol (2).  More...