Abstract:
Diabetes mellitus is one of the non-contagious diseases which has now become a major
health problem all over the world. This study was conducted to identify a natural, safe,
and reliable solution for “diabetes” with proper scientific validation. The objective of the
study was to extract and isolate anti-hyperglycemic compounds from Cheilocostus
speciosus leaves. For this, a successive extraction with diethyl ether, ethyl acetate, and
ethanol using sonication at room temperature was performed to extract oven-dried (40 ℃,
48 h) leaves of C. speciosus. Percentage inhibition of the enzymes and the IC50 values
were determined. But the extracts of diethyl ether and ethyl acetate did not exhibit proper
percent inhibitions for both alpha-amylase and alpha-glucosidase activities. Porcine
pancreatic alpha-amylase inhibitory activity was performed using the DNSA method and
it was detected in ethanolic extract of C. speciosus leaves with an IC50 of 17.12 mg ml-1
and Saccharomyces cerevisiae alpha-glucosidase inhibitory activity was detected with an
IC50 of 21.20 mg ml-1
. Both enzyme inhibitory activities were compared with that of
commercial Acarbose (IC50 values for alpha-amylase and alpha-glucosidase enzymes are
65.44 µg ml-1
and 68.52 µg ml-1
, respectively). When comparing with acarbose, a crude
extract of C. speciosus leaves show promising nature to isolate antihyperglycemic
compounds. Results also indicate that the alpha-amylase and alpha-glucosidase inhibition
by the ethanol extract of C. speciosus are dose dependent. Therefore, this study proves
that the ethanolic leaf extract of C. speciosus has enzyme inhibitory activities toward
alpha-glucosidase and alpha-amylase which may helpful for the development of an antihyperglycemic formulation to reduce the postprandial glucose level. This will be carried
out by bioassay-guided fractionation and isolated active compounds will be intercalated to
montmorillonite, an aluminosilicate clay with high cation exchange capacity, and large
specific surface area to produce sustained release formulation.
Keywords: Cheilocostus speciosus, Alpha-amylase, Alpha-glucosidase, Diabetes mellitus
