Functional-Diet Potential of Black Cumin-Enriched Acha-Based Cookies on Plasmodium berghei-Infected Diabetic Mice

The prevalence of diabetes and malaria remains high in developing countries despite remarkable progress in the health sector. Functional food remedies with acha grains and black cumin have been used locally to treat/manage type 2 diabetes (T2D) and malaria separately. However, this study sought to assess the comorbidity and the ameliorative potential of black cumin-enriched acha-based cookies in Plasmodium berghei infection in diabetic mice. High-fat diet fed mice of 20-25 g were grouped into eight groups (n = 8), while a single dose of streptozotocin (35 mg/kg) was intraperitoneally administered to induce T2D. After this, the NK65 strain of P. berghei was used to infect the mice, and the infected diabetic mice were fed with the formulated cookies for 14 days, and the percentage (%) parasitemia suppression and blood glucose levels were evaluated at 3-day intervals in the morning. The effect of the cookies on pancreatic α-amylase, α-glucosidase, endogenous antioxidant enzymes (superoxide dismutase), catalase, glutathione peroxidase activities, reduced glutathione level, and inflammatory nuclear factor kappa-light-chain-enhancer and interleukin-10 markers was determined. The result of the malaria-infected diabetic mice fed with a fortified cookies diet indicates a reversal of damage incurred compared with the negative control group. This shows that black cumin-enriched acha-based cookies could be a promising nutraceutical therapy in T2D-malaria pathology.