Evaluation of α-glucosidase, α-amylase and protein glycation inhibitory activities of edible plants

Abstract

The present study was to investigate in vitro α-glucosidase, pancreatic α−amylase and protein glycation inhibitory activities of nine edible plants. The results indicated that total phenolics, flavonoids, and condensed tannins of nine edible plants showed marked variations, ranging from 12.2 to 80.1 mg gallic acid equivalent/g extract, 2.34 to 13.65 mg quercetin equivalent/g extract, and 97.2 to 460.1 mg catechin equivalent/g extract, respectively. Our findings showed that grape seed, Cat's whiskers and Sweetleaf extract were the most effective pancreatic α-amylase, intestinal maltase, and sucrase inhibitor with IC₅₀ values of 0.29 ± 0.01 mg/ml, 0.97 ± 0.10 mg/ml and 0.86 ± 0.01 mg/ml, respectively. All extracts (1 mg/ml) markedly inhibited the glycation of bovine serum albumin in fructose-mediated non-enzyme glycation by 50–30% at week 1. It was found that Pennywort maintained the high percentage inhibition among those of the extracts during the 4 weeks of experiment. These edible plants may be used for controlling blood glucose level and prevention of the development of type 2 diabetes.

Keywords::

• Edible plants
• α-glucosidase
• pancreatic α-amylase
• anti-glycation
• phytochemical

Declaration of interest: The present research was partly supported by the Thailand Research Fund. The author gratefully acknowledges The Medical Food Research and Development Center, which has been financially and institutionally supported by Chulalongkorn University.