Anti-hyperglycaemic effects of the Japanese red maple Acer pycnanthum and its constituents the ginnalins B and C

Abstract

The anti-hyperglycaemic effects of the leaves of Acer pycnanthum K. Koch, and the purification and identification of the active compounds were investigated. Extracts of the leaves showed a potent inhibitory effect on the α-glucosidase in both in vivo and in vitro experiments. The fractionation of the crude extract gave two active compounds, ginnalin B (6-O-galloyl-1,5-anhydro-D-glucitol) and ginnalin C (2-O-galloyl-1,5-anhydro-D-glucitol), by spectroscopic analysis. This is the first report that A. pycnanthum and its constituents may be useful for the prevention or treatment of diabetes mellitus.

Keywords::

• Acer pycnanthum
• diabetes mellitus
• α-glucosidase inhibitory effect
• ginnalin B
• ginnalin C

Acknowledgements

We would like to thank K. Oyama (Chemical Instrumentation Facility, Nagoya University) for measuring the HR-ESIMS of purified compounds.

Declaration of interest

This study was supported in part by a Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research for Creative Scientific Research (No. 21510223) from the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology, Japan.