Background & Objectives: Diabetes is a chronic disease characterized by derangement in protein, fat and carbohydrate metabolism. Most of hypoglycemic agent used in medicine for diabetes treatment are reported to have side effects for long run. On the other hand, increase in oxidative stress is effective in the genesis of diabetes. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to assess the effect of alcoholic extract of Euphorbia cyparissias on serum glucose and antioxidant enzymes level in diabetic male rats.

  Methods : In this study, 40 adult male Wistar rats weighting 250±20 grams divided into four groups randomly: control, diabetic animals, treatment 1 and treatment 2 which received 500 and 250 mg/kg of E.cyparissias extract for 21 days by gastric gavage, respectively. At the end of the treatment, level of antioxidant enzymes including TAC, MDA, SOD and GPX and also blood glucose were determined in animal's serum.

  Results : The blood glucose levels were significantly lowered in the group of treatment 1 compared to diabetic group (p<0.05). Results showed that MDA level of serum was increased significantly in diabetic group in comparison with control group (p<0.05). Furthermore, the TAC, SOD and GPX level were increased significantly in the group of treatment 1 compared to diabetic group (p<0.05).

  Conclusion : This study showed that oral administration of E.cyparissias extract has antidiabetic and antioxidant activity in streptozotocin induced diabetic rats.