α-Glucosidase inhibitory activity of marine sponges collected in Mauritius waters

Abstract

This report describes the use of α-glucosidase to evaluate the anti-diabetic potential of extracts from marine sponges collected in the Mauritius waters. Initial screening at 1.0 mg/mL of 141 extracts obtained from 47 sponge species revealed 10 extracts with inhibitory activity greater than 85%. Seven of the 10 extracts were further tested at 0.1 and 0.01 mg/mL and only the methanol extract of two sponges namely Acanthostylotella sp. (ASSM) and Echinodictyum pykei (EPM) showed inhibition activity greater than 60% at 0.1 mg/mL with an IC₅₀ value of 0.16 ± 0.02 and 0.04 ± 0.01 mg/mL, respectively, while being inactive at 0.01 mg/mL.

Keywords::

• α-glucosidase
• postprandial hyperglycemia
• Mauritius
• marine sponges

Acknowledgements

The authors wish to thank the National Coast Guard (NCG) for their invaluable help at ensuring safety during fieldwork. We acknowledge the continuous support of Mr Chettanand Samyan and Mr Prakash Mussai for sample collection.

Notes

^1. Contributed equally to this work.