Tropical Plant Extracts as Potential Antihyperglycemic Agents

Preliminary investigations on 14 plant extracts (obtained by ethanolic and aqueous extraction) identified those having high antioxidant and a significant total phenolic content. Antihyperglycemic, a-amylase and a-glucosidase inhibition activities were also observed. A correlation between the antihyp...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Cheng Hwee Ming, Thamilvaani Manaharan, Uma Devi Palanisamy
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: MDPI AG 2012-05-01
Series:Molecules
Subjects:
Online Access:http://www.mdpi.com/1420-3049/17/5/5915
Description
Summary:Preliminary investigations on 14 plant extracts (obtained by ethanolic and aqueous extraction) identified those having high antioxidant and a significant total phenolic content. Antihyperglycemic, a-amylase and a-glucosidase inhibition activities were also observed. A correlation between the antihyperglycemic activity, total phenolic content and antioxidant (DPPH scavenging) activity was established. To further substantiate these findings, the possibility of tannins binding non-specifically to enzymes and thus contributing to the antihyperglycemic activity was also investigated. Our study clearly indicated that the antihyperglycemic activity observed in the plant extracts was indeed not due to non-specific tannin absorption.
ISSN:1420-3049