Ruellia tuberosa L. is a folk remedy in the treatment of diabetes mellitus. However, its hypoglycemic activity has not been investigated so far. In the present study, the antidiabetic mechanism of the n-hexane fraction of methanolic extract (HFME) of this plant was investigated in silico, in vitro, and in vivo. In silico study was performed using AutoDock4.2 software. In vitro   α-amylase inhibitory activity was investigated by starch-iodine method. A single dose of 450 mg/kg HFME for 14 days was subjected to an antidiabetic screening in vivo by a multiple low dose streptozotocin (MLD-STZ) induced rats. Molecular modeling results show that Betulin exhibited noncompetitive α-amylase inhibitory activities. The effect of HFME elicited significant reductions of diabetic rat blood glucose. A single dose administration of HFME inhibited α-amylase activity in vivo (P < 0.01) compared to a diabetic control group. Moreover, this extract strongly inhibited the α-amylase activity in vitro (IC50 0.14 ± 0.005 mg/mL). It is concluded that HFME exerted an antidiabetic effect via α-amylase inhibitor. Our findings provide a possible hypoglycemic action of R. tuberosa L. as an alternative therapy in the management of diabetes.

Inhibition of α-amylase is an important strategy to control post-prandial hyperglycemia. The present study on Ruellia tuberosa, known as traditional anti-diabetic agent, is being provided in silico study to identify compounds inhibiting α-amylase in rat and human. Compounds were explored from PubChem database. Molecular docking was studied using the autodock4. The interactions were further visualized and analyzed using the Accelrys Discovery Studio version 3.5. Binding energy of compounds to α-amylase was varying between -1.92 to -6.66 kcal/mol in rat pancreatic alpha amylase and -3.06 to -8.42kcal/mol in human pancreatic alpha amylase, and inhibition konstanta (ki) was varying between 13.12- 39460µM in rat and 0.67-5600µM in human. The docking results verify that betulin is the most potential inhibitor of all towards rat model alpha amylase and human alpha amylase. Further analysis reveals that betulin could be a potential inhibitor with non-competitive pattern like betulinic acid. In comparison, betulin has smaller Ki (0.67µM) than acarbose (2.6 µM), which suggesting that betulin is more potential as inhibitor than acarbose, but this assumption must be verified in vitro.

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Until now, the patchouli oil is the largest commodity export of essential oil for Indonesia. But the price of patchouli oil is often unstable due to the quality of oil which fluctuates depending on the components. To improve the performance and quality of patchouli oil had been carried out the purification process using supercritical CO2 fluid extraction method. Optimization conditions of the extraction process using the approach of Response Surface Methodology (RSM) and the influence of independent variables include temperature (35–45 °C), pressure (80–150 atm) and the time of extraction (60–300 min), and then evaluated using a Box-Behnken Design (BBD). Analysis of the components in the extract was carried out by using GC-MS and GC-FID to detect the changes of compositions of the components containing the oil before and after the extraction process. The optimum condition of supercritical extraction within experimental range of the studied variables was at 38 °C, 146.35 atm and 74 min for predicted oil yield of 6.41% and at 41.45 °C, 135.17 atm and 252.62 min and the predicted patchouli alcohol content was 25.34%. The extracted oil is enriched with the main components such as patchouli alcohol compared to the original patchouli oil. The results of RSM evaluation showed consistency between the variables contained in the experiment and the prediction.

AbstrakMetode perbanyakan in vitro tanaman akar wangi (Vetiveria zizanioides) secara efektif telah dikembangkan pada penelitian ini. Beberapa variasi media digunakan untuk inisiasi dan multiplikasi tunas. Pembentukan tunas dapat diinisiasi dari eksplan crown yang dikulturkan pada medium MS dengan penambahan zat pengatur tumbuh Benzyladenine (BA) 2 mgL -1 . Sedangkan untuk multiplikasi tunas, konsentrasi BA yang efektif dalam media adalah 3 mgL -1 , dengan rata-rata jumlah tunas yang terbentuk sebesar 126 tunas/eksplan. Penggunaan BA konsentrasi tinggi (3-5 mgL -1 ) pada media multiplikasi dapat memacu terbentuknya lebih banyak tunas, namun tunas yang dihasilkan lebih pendek. Sebaliknya, penggunaan BA dengan konsentrasi rendah (1-2 mgL -1 ) pada media multiplikasi menghasilkan lebih sedikit tunas, tetapi tunas yang dihasilkan lebih panjang. Regenerasi planlet diperoleh dengan menginduksi akar pada tunas pada media MS yang ditambah dengan zat pengatur tumbuh NAA 1 mgL -1 . Tanaman in vitro akar wangi telah berhasil ditumbuhkan pada media tanah di bawah kondisi rumah kaca. Dengan menggunakan metode di atas, maka dimungkinkan perbanyakan bibit akar wangi secara massal melalui teknik kultur jaringan. Kata kunci-Vetiveria zizanioides, in vitro, inisiasi dan multiplikasi tunas, regenerasi plantlet, AbstractIn vitro propagation method for vetiver (Vetiveria zizanioides L.) had been effectively developed in this study. Several variations of media were used for shoot initiation and multiplication. Shoot formation was initiated from crown explant cultured on MS media with the addition of 2 mgL -1 of growth regulator Benzyladenine (BA). Whereas for shoot multiplication, 3 mgL -1 of BA was evidently effective with the average shoot number was 126 shoots per explant. The application of high BA concentration (3-5 mgL -1 ) in multiplication media was capable of inducing more shoots, but the shoots resulted were shorter. In contrast, multiplication media supplemented with low BA concentration (1-2 mgL -1 ) yielded less shoots, but the shoots were longer. Plantlet regeneration was accomplished by inducing roots in the shoots yielded on MS media containing 1 mgL -1 growth regulator NAA. In vitro plants of vetiver had been successfully grown on soil media under greenhouse condition. By using foregoing method, it is possible to conduct mass propagation of vetiver through tissue culture technique.