Researchers from Spain, Sweden and America have been able to identify and isolate a compound that mimics the property of insulin. Identified by Merck Research Laboratories it's been cryptically named L 783,281.

The team of researchers fished though some 50,000 potential compounds and finally zeroed in on one promising new molecule that was isolated from a lowly fungus found growing in the jungles of Africa. The new drug holds promise because ``it may lead to the development of a novel class of anti-diabetic agents'' say researchers in the prestigious American magazine Science. The compound now identified chemically as a quinone ``resulted in significant lowering of blood glucose levels'' in mice suffering from diabetes. Human trials are yet to be undertaken.

To keep theblood sugar levels under control diabetics are more often than not forced to take 2-3 painful and expensive injections of insulin every day. Unfortunately, insulin has to be taken as an injection simply because it is a protein which is broken up and digested by the enzymes of the gut if taken orally.

There have been many failed attempts at trying to find an oral substitute for insulin but this new molecule holds much promise because it successfully mimics the insulin molecule in the mice model on which it was tested. More importantly it is non-protein by composition, hence it can be consumed orally as a pill.