Investigation of the Bioactive Principles and α-Glucosidase Inhibitory Effect of some Myanmar Traditional Medicinal Plants

Abstract

This research is focused on the evaluation of a-glucosidase inhibitors from eight Myanmar traditional medicinal plants such as Ammomum xanthoides Wall., Commelina communis Linn., Crataeva religiosa Forst., Eupatorium odoratum Linn., Gynura procumbens (Lour.) Merr., Momordica charantia Linn., Spirulina and Syzygium grande (WI) Walp.. All of these medicinal plants have been reported to possess the antidiabetic potential. In the present work, watery and ethanolic extracts, and some isolated compounds such as lupeol, lupeol acetate, friedelin, betulinic acid, gallic acid, stigmasterol, taraxasterol, B-sitosterol-B-D-glucoside, stearic acid, B-sitosterol, vitamin C, charatin and A. xanthoides essential oil were used to investigate their inhibitory effect on a- glucosidase enzyme activity. All of the selected medicinal plant extracts (IC50 = 0.14 ~ 2.07 µg/ml) as well as the isolated compounds (IC50 = 0.47 ~ 1.91 µg/ml) were found to show the a-glucosidase inhibitory activity. These values were found to be comparable with Voglibose (IC50 = 0.32 µg/ml), which was used as a reference in this study. Therefore these plants may be used as sources of natural a-glucosidase inhibitors in control or management of the postprandial hyperglycemia, Type 2 diabetes