The mission of Glucox Botech is to identify compounds that improve glucose homeostasis. Together with two acadmic groups at Karolinska Institutet and Stockholm University, Glucox Biotech has shown that shikonin, a naphthoquinone derived from the Cinese plant Lithospermum erythrorhizon, increases glucose uptake i skeletal muscle cells.

Shikonin increases uptake via an insulin-independent, calcium dependent, pathway. The beneficial effects of shikonin on glucose metabolism, both in vitro and in vivo, show that the compound possesses properties that make it of considerable interest for developing novel treatments of type 2 diabetes.

Ref: Öberg, A.I., et al (2011) PLoS One, 6 (7): e22510