Diabetes mellitus is a chronic metabolic disorder characterized by high blood glucose level caused due to deficiency of insulin secretion or insulin action. It includes a group of metabolic diseases characterized by hyperglycemia, in which blood sugar levels are elevated either because the pancreas do not produce enough insulin or cells do not respond to the produced insulin. Thus, a therapeutic approach to treat diabetes is to decrease postprandial hyperglycemia in patients with type II diabetes. It can be achieved by the inhibition of carbohydrate hydrolyzing enzymes like alpha amylase and alpha glucosidase. Such inhibitors which find application in the clinical practice for management of diabetes are known to be associated with various gastrointestinal side effects. Therefore, it is the need of time to identify and explore the amylase inhibitors from natural sources having fewer side effects. In the present study, aqueous extracts of selected plants namely Albizzia lebbeck, Berberis aristata, Mucuna pruriens, Myristica fragrans, Catharanthus roseus, and Caesalpinia bonducella which are used in the Ayurvedic traditional system of medicine to treat diabetes were tested for their inhibitory effect on α-amylase. The results revealed that the extract of A. lebbeck at a concentration of 1000µg/ml exhibited an inhibition of 70.91%, whereas the extracts of B. aristata and M. pruriens showed an inhibition of 65.24% and 62.96 % respectively at a similar concentration. The extracts of C. roseus, M. fragrans and C. bonducella exhibited a relatively less inhibitory response for the α-amylase enzyme. The results of the work thus clearly indicate the potential of the studied extracts to manage hyperglycemia.

In vitro, Glucose diffusion Objective: To verify the antidiabetic potential of stem bark of Albizzia lebbeck (A. lebbeck) and seeds of Mucuna pruriens (M. pruriens) using various in vitro techniques. Methods: The plant extracts were studied for their effects on glucose adsorption, diffusion amylolysis kinetics and glucose transport across yeast cells. Results: Both the plant extracts adsorbed glucose and the adsorption of glucose increased remarkably with an increase in glucose concentration. No significant (P≤0.05) differences were observed between the adsorption capacities of A. lebbeck and M. pruriens. In amylolysis kinetic experimental model the rate of glucose diffusion was found to increase with time from 30 to 180 min, and both the plant extracts demonstrated significant inhibitory effects on movement of glucose into external solution across dialysis membrane as compared to control. The retardation of glucose diffusion by A. lebbeck extract was significantly higher (P≤0.05) than M. pruriens. These effects were reflected with higher glucose dialysis retardation index values for A. lebbeck than M. pruriens. The plant extracts also promoted glucose uptake by yeast cells. The rate of uptake of glucose into yeast cells was linear in all the 5 glucose concentrations used in the study. M. pruriens extract exhibited significantly higher (P≤0.05) activity than the extract of A. lebbeck at all concentrations. Conclusions: The results verified the antidiabetic potential of A. lebbeck and M. pruriens. The hypoglycemic effect exhibited by the extracts is mediated by increasing glucose adsorption, decreasing glucose diffusion rate and at the cellular level by promoting glucose transport across the cell membrane as revealed by simple in vitro model of yeast cells.

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