One vital therapeutic approach for the treatment of type 2 diabetes mellitus is the use of agents that can decrease postprandial hyperglycaemia by inhibiting carbohydrate digesting enzymes. The present study investigated the effects of bioassay-guided extract and fractions of the dried fruit pericarp of Phaleria macrocarpa, a traditional anti-diabetic plant, on α-glucosidase and α-amylase, in a bid to understand their anti-diabetic mechanism, as well as their possible attenuation action on postprandial glucose increase.
There has been an enormous interest in the development of alternative medicines for type 2 diabetes, specifically screening for phytochemicals with the ability to delay or prevent glucose absorption. The goal of the present study was to provide in vitro evidence for potential inhibition of alpha-glucosidase and alpha-amylase enzymes, followed by a confirmatory in vivo study on rats to generate a stronger biochemical rationale for further studies on the ethanolic extract of Andrographis paniculata and andrographolide. The extract showed appreciable alpha-glucosidase inhibitory effect in a concentration-dependent manner (IC(50)=17.2+/-0.15 mg/ml) and a weak alpha-amylase inhibitory activity (IC(50)=50.9+/-0.17 mg/ml). Andrographolide demonstrated a similar (IC(50)=11.0+/-0.28 mg/ml) alpha-glucosidase and alpha-amylase inhibitory activity (IC(50)=11.3+/-0.29 mg/ml). The positive in vitro enzyme inhibition tests paved way for confirmatory in vivo studies. The in vivo studies demonstrated that A. paniculata extract significantly (P<0.05) reduced peak blood glucose and area under curve in diabetic rats when challenged with oral administration of starch and sucrose. Further, andrographolide also caused a significant (P<0.05) reduction in peak blood glucose and area under the curve in diabetic rats. Hence alpha-glucosidase inhibition may possibly be one of the mechanisms for the A. paniculata extract to exert antidiabetic activity and indicates that AP extract can be considered as a potential candidate for the management of type 2 diabetes mellitus.
The genus Silene is renowned in Turkey for its traditional use as food and medicine. Currently, there are 138 species of Silene in Turkey, amongst which have been several studies for possible pharmacological potential and application in food industry. However, there is currently a paucity of data on Silene salsuginea Hub.-Mor. This study endeavours to access its antioxidant, enzyme inhibitory, and anti-inflammatory properties. Besides, reversed-phase high-performance liquid chromatography-diode array detector (RP-HPLC-DAD) was used to detect phenolic compounds, and molecular docking was performed to provide new insights for tested enzymes and phenolics. High amounts of apigenin (534 μg/g extract), ferulic acid (452 μg/g extract), p-coumaric acid (408 μg/g extract), and quercetin (336 μg/g extract) were detected in the methanol extract while rutin (506 μg/g extract) was most abundant in the aqueous extract. As for their biological properties, the methanol extract exhibited the best antioxidant effect in the DPPH and CUPRAC assays, and also the highest inhibition against tyrosinase. The aqueous extract was the least active enzyme inhibitor but showed the highest antioxidant efficacy in the ABTS, FRAP, and metal chelating assays. At a concentration of 15.6 μg/mL, the methanol extract resulted in a moderate decrease (25.1%) of NO production in lipopolysaccharide-stimulated cells. Among the phenolic compounds, epicatechin, (+)-catechin, and kaempferol showed the highest binding affinity towards the studied enzymes in silico. It can be concluded that extracts of S. salsuginea are a potential source of functional food ingredients but need further analytical experiments to explore its complexity of chemical compounds and pharmacological properties as well as using in vivo toxicity models to establish its maximum tolerated dose.