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Objective: The current study examined the effects of the methylene chloride/methanol extract of root bark of Ceiba pentandra (L) in normal and streptozotocin-induced diabetic rats. Materials and Methods: Diabetes was induced by intravenous streptozotocin (55 mg/kg) in adult male albino Wistar rats. Single and multiple dose studies were carried out. Blood glucose levels were determined after oral administration of graded doses of C. pentandra (40, 75, 150 and 300 mg/kg) in fasting normal and diabetic groups for the single dose study; and before and at the end of day 3 of the treatment period for the multiple dose study. Results: In both the groups, the extract (40 and 75 mg/kg) significantly reduced the blood glucose 5 hours after administration, in a consistent and time-dependent manner. C. pentandra at the lower dose (40 mg/kg) produced 40% and 48.9% lowering of blood glucose in normal and diabetic rats, respectively compared to the initial values. In the multiple dose studies, the diabetic rats were treated orally by gavage, twice a day for three days. On day 3, C. pentandra (40 and 75 mg/kg) significantly decreased blood and urine glucose, compared to initial values. With 40 and 75 mg/kg of drug, the 14 h fasting blood glucose concentration was reduced by 59.8% and 42.8% with corresponding reductions of urine glucose levels by 95.7% and 63.6%, respectively. Conclusion: These results indicate that C. pentandra possesses a hypoglycaemic effect. The plant extract is capable of ameliorating hyperglycaemia in streptozotocin-induced diabetic rats and is a potential source for isolation of new orally active agent(s) for diabetes mellitus. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]