Intake of St John's wort improves the glucose tolerance in healthy subjects who ingest metformin compared with metformin alone.

ABSTRACT:

Aims

Our objective was to investigate the steady-state pharmacokinetic and pharmacodynamic interaction between the antidepressive herbal medicine St John's wort and the antidiabetic drug metformin.

Methods

We performed an open cross-over study in 20 healthy male subjects, who received 1 g of metformin twice daily for 1 week with and without 21 days of preceding and concomitant treatment with St John's wort. The pharmacokinetics of metformin was determined, and a 2 h oral glucose tolerance test was performed.

Results

St John's wort decreased the renal clearance of metformin but did not affect any other metformin pharmacokinetic parameter. The addition of St John's wort decreased the area under the glucose concentration-time curve [702 (95% confidence interval, 643-761)

SUBMITTER: Stage TB 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4309635 | biostudies-literature | 2015 Feb

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature