Would you think that there would be any benefit to taking banaba?
Here is the information I found on the net.

"Banaba acts as a glucose transporter, regulating and lowering blood sugar with no side effects. This allows you to burn fat instead of glucose.Banaba helps normalize insulin resistance resulting in more efficient nutrient uptake. You don't need to eat as much to get what your body needs.Banaba has antioxidant properties that allow for the cleanup of toxins that your body releases when it burns off fat.Reducing blood insulin levels helps promote the body's natural release of human growth hormone."

This actually looks pretty interesting - it increases glucose uptake, like insulin, but unlike insulin, it does not cause preadipocyte differentiation (to mature adipocytes) and, in fact, inhibits it.

Course anyone can look these up using PubMed, but maybe some people don't generally look there and I figured these might be of interest...

Citation 2.
Link to... •

Unique Identifier
10737232

Medline Identifier
20199493

Authors
Suzuki Y. Unno T. Ushitani M. Hayashi K. Kakuda T.

Institution
Central Research Institute, Itoen, Ltd., Shizuoka, Japan.

Title
Antiobesity activity of extracts from Lagerstroemia speciosa L. leaves on female KK-Ay mice.

Source
Journal of Nutritional Science & Vitaminology. 45(6):791-5, 1999 Dec.

Abstract
Banaba in the Tagalog name, Lagerstroemia speciosa L., has been used as a folk medicine for a long time among diabetics in the Philippines. Extracts from banaba leaves have been reported to reduce diabetic symptoms in genetically diabetic mice (Type II, KK-Ay). In the present study, female mice of the same strain showing remarkable body weight gain were used to examine the antiobesity effect of dietary banaba extract. Five-week-old female KK-Ay mice were fed a control diet or test diet containing 5% of a hot-water extract from banaba leaves instead of cellulose for 12 wk. Neither group showed any changes in diet intake during the experimental period. Body weight gain and parametrial adipose tissue weight were lowered significantly in the banaba diet group. Blood glucose levels were not suppressed in the banaba diet group, but hemoglobin A1C was found to be suppressed at the end of the experiment. No effects on the serum lipids were observed, but the mice fed banaba extract showed a significant decrease, to 65% of the control level in total hepatic lipid contents. This decrease was due to a reduction in the accumulation of triglyceride. These results suggest that banaba had a beneficial effect on obese female KK-Ay mice.

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Citation 3.
Link to... •

Unique Identifier
9063966

Medline Identifier
97076613

Authors
Kakuda T. Sakane I. Takihara T. Ozaki Y. Takeuchi H. Kuroyanagi M.

Institution
Central Research Institute, Itoen, Ltd., Sagara-cho, Haibara-gun, Shizuoka, Japan.

Title
Hypoglycemic effect of extracts from Lagerstroemia speciosa L. leaves in genetically diabetic KK-AY mice.

Source
Bioscience Biotechnology & Biochemistry. 60(2):204-8, 1996 Feb.

Abstract
The hypoglycemic effects of Lagerstroemia speciosa L., known by the Tagalog name of banaba in the Phillipines, were studied using hereditary diabetic mice (Type II, KK-AY/Ta Jcl). The mice were fed a test diet containing 5% of the hot-water extract (HWE) from banaba leaves, 3% of the water eluent of the partial fraction unadsorbed onto HP-20 resin of HWE (HPWE), and 2% of the methanol eluent of the partial fraction adsorbed onto HP-20 resin of it (HPME) for a feeding period of 5 weeks. The elevation of blood plasma glucose level in non-insulin dependent diabetic mice fed the cellulose as control (CEL) diet were almost entirely suppressed by addition of either HWE or HPME in place of cellulose in the CEL diet. Water intakes were inclined to increase gradually in the group fed either CEL or HPWE, but lower in the mice fed either HWE or HPME than in the animals given either CEL or HPME. The level of serum insulin and the amount of urinary excreted glucose were also lowered in mice fed HWE. Plasma total cholesterol level was also lowered in mice fed the either HWE or HPME. It is suggested that HWE, especially HPME, obtained from banaba leaves have beneficial effects on control of the level of plasma glucose in non-insulin dependent diabetes mellitus.

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Citation 1.
Link to... •

Unique Identifier
11533261

Medline Identifier
21424259

Authors
Liu F. Kim J. Li Y. Liu X. Li J. Chen X.

Institution
Edison Biotechnology Institute, Department of Biomedical Sciences, College of Osteopathic Medicine, Athens, OH 45701, USA.

Title
An extract of Lagerstroemia speciosa L. has insulin-like glucose uptake-stimulatory and adipocyte differentiation-inhibitory activities in 3T3-L1 cells.

Source
Journal of Nutrition. 131(9):2242-7, 2001 Sep.

Abstract
The effects of extracts isolated from Lagerstroemia speciosa L. (banaba) on glucose transport and adipocyte differentiation in 3T3-L1 cells were studied. Glucose uptake-inducing activity of banaba extract (BE) was investigated in differentiated adipocytes using a radioactive assay, and the ability of BE to induce differentiation in preadipocytes was examined by Northern and Western blot analyses. The hot water BE and the banaba methanol eluent (BME) stimulated glucose uptake in 3T3-L1 adipocytes with an induction time and a dose-dependent response similar to those of insulin. Furthermore, there were no additive or synergistic effects found between BE and insulin on glucose uptake, and the glucose uptake activity of insulin could be reduced to basal levels by adding increasing amounts of BE. Unlike insulin, BE did not induce adipocyte differentiation in the presence of 3-isobutyl-1-methylxanthine (IBMX) and dexamethasone (DEX). BE inhibited the adipocyte differentiation induced by insulin plus IBMX and DEX (IS-IBMX-DEX) of 3T3-L1 preadipocytes in a dose-dependent manner. The differences in the glucose uptake and differentiation inhibitory activities between untreated cells and those treated with BE were significant (P < 0.01). The inhibitory activity was further demonstrated by drastic reductions of peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor gamma2 (PPARgamma2) mRNA and glucose transporter-4 (GLUT4) protein in cells induced from preadipocytes with IS-IBMX-DEX in the presence of BE. The unique combination of a glucose uptake stimulatory activity, the absence of adipocyte differentiation activity and effective inhibition of adipocyte differentiation induced by IS-IBMX-DEX in 3T3-L1 cells suggest that BE may be useful for prevention and treatment of hyperglycemia and obesity in type II diabetics.

Who makes it? Anyone repuatable produce it?

Look for Colosolic Acid.

It's in Met-Rx Glycemet, I believe. Not sure of the amount, however.

It goes by the trade name of Glucosol (by Soft Gel technologies). I have taken this before in the amount of 720 mcgs, although I am not for certain if I noticed a thing (had too many variables). I know a cheap source for it, so I may try again (if anyone lives near a Trader Joe's, they sell the 240 mcg ,90 softgel bottles under the Glucosol name, for $9.99 I believe).

What is this Trader Joe's I keep hearing you talk about Dante... ??

Trader Joe's

I believe that Dorian Yates product t-5 also contains banaba along with other various fat burning products. I'm not sure how much they include or wether or not there is enough to do any good or not .

Glucosol 24mg 60 softgels retails for 13.99 from NOW FOODS, can probably be found for 10 bucks.

wow.. Trader Joe's looks like they have a lot of good products.. Too bad there aren't any even in my state...

What State are you in Dante/Par? Only place I have seen T.J. is when I am in Cali (SD to SF).

Love the view in SD and love the food in SF...Atlanta is boring.

No it's not...

compared to San Diego my other stomping grounds it is. Where you hang out Buckhead? I avoid that place like the plague. I like WATER, tell me where there is fresh lake around here that is NOT man made...oops there are none.

Lanier is so crowded...

Trader Joes must be a west coast thing. I had never heard of it until I moved to LA. It is not in the South/Midwest, and pretty sure it is not in the Northeast.

Actually we have 2 trader joe's here in Indy. They are pretty cool, but they do sell some of the same bars I carry. But alas not much competiton because I own a sports nutrion store and they are more of a health food store. Yes, I do stock avant labs gear.