Tein.characteristic alterations in blood insulin and glucose concentrations [34]. Antioxidants are substances or nutrients in our food substances which can avert or slow down the oxidative damage by quenching the free radicals in our body. When our body cells use oxygen, they naturally produce by-products (free radicals) which can cause damage to membranes and tissues. Health problems such as heart disease, muscular degeneration, diabetes mellitus, cancer etc. are contributed by oxidative damage [35]. C-peptide has insulin-mimetic effects on its own by activating insulin receptors, amino acid uptake and increases glycogen synthesis. The C-peptide promotes insulin action at low concentrations and inhibits it at high levels, suggesting a modulatory effect by C-peptide on insulin signaling [36]. The increased level of insulin and Cpeptide was observed after treatment with ethanolic extract of Evolvulus alsinoides which may be due to the activation of trace -cells in the pancreas. Our results are also in line with the previous report of Senthilkumar and Subramanian, 2008 [37]. Our results were also supported by Patel et al., 2009 [38] who reported that the diabetic induction by streptozotocin decreases the insulin level in serum, after treatment with dihar (poly WP1066 web herbal formation) the insulin levels were increased.Figure 2 Histopathology of pancreas.Figure 1 Effect of Evolvulus alsinoides on lipid peroxidation in pancreas of control and diabetic rats.Oxidative stress is found to be increased in patients with diabetes mellitus. Evidence suggests that oxidative cellular injury caused by free radicals contributes to the development of diabetes. Antioxidant enzymes are used to scavenge the free radicals and protects the organs and membranes from oxidative damage. Moreover, diabetes also induces changes in the tissue content and activity of the antioxidant enzymes [39,40]. SOD protects tissues against oxygen free radicals by catalysing the removal of superox-ide radical, converting it into H2O2 and molecular oxygen, which both damage the cell membrane and other biological structures [41]. Catalase is a haemprotein, which is responsible for the detoxification of significant amounts of H2O2 [42]. Reduced activities of SOD and catalase in the liver and pancreas during diabetes were reported, resulting in a number of deleterious effects due to the accumulation of superoxide radicals and hydrogen peroxide [43]. The plant extract treated rats showed reduced lipid peroxidation which was associated with an increased activity of antioxidant enzymes like SOD and CAT. The same results was reported by Chis et al., 2009 [1] for antioxidant effects of a grape seed extract in a rat model of diabetes mellitus. In our study, decline in the activities of these enzymes in STZ induced animals and attained near to normal in plant treated rats indicates oxidative stress elicited by STZ had been nullified due to the effect of the extract. Similar to the finding in this study, a decrease has been observed in the activities of GST, CAT and GPx in some of the tissues of diabetic rats [35,44]. Reduced glutathione is one of the most abundant nonenzymatic antioxidant bio-molecules PubMed ID:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/27385778 present in tissues whose functions are removal of reactive oxygen species and provision of a substrate for GPx and glutathione S-transferase (GST) [45]. Ascorbic acid is most powerful antioxidant under physiological conditions. It canGomathi et al. Journal of Diabetes Metabolic Disorders 2013, 12.