Type 2 diabetes mellitus leads to metabolic impairment
caused by
insulin resistance and hyperglycemia, giving rise to chronic diabetic
complications and poor disease prognosis. The heartwood of Pterocarpus marsupium has been used in Ayurveda for a long
time, and we sought to find the actual mechanism(s) driving its antidiabetic
potential. Methanol was used to prepare the extract using a Soxhlet
extraction, and the identification of metabolites was performed by
thin-layer chromatography (TLC) and ultraperformance-liquid chromatography
and mass spectroscopy (UP-LCMS). The antioxidant potential of methanolic
heartwood extract of Pterocarpus marsupium MHPM was
determined using 2,2-diphenyl-1-picrylhydrazyl (DPPH) and a reducing
power assay. The α-amylase and α-glucosidase enzyme inhibitory
potential of MHPM were investigated for their antidiabetic activity
against acarbose. TLC-MS-bioautography was performed to identify the
compounds responsible for possible antioxidant and antidiabetic activities.
Moreover, targeting protein tyrosine phosphatase 1B (PTP1B), a key
regulator of insulin resistance, by identified metabolites from MHPM
through molecular docking and all-atom molecular dynamics (MD) simulations
was also undertaken, suggesting its potential as an antidiabetic herb.
The IC50 of free-radical scavenging activity of MHPM against
DPPH was 156.342 ± 10.70 μg/mL. Further, the IC50 values of MHPM in α-amylase and α-glucosidase enzymatic
inhibitions were 158.663 ± 10.986 μg/mL and 180.21 ±
11.35 μg/mL, respectively. TLC-MS-bioautography identified four
free radical scavenging metabolites, and vanillic acid identified
by MS analysis showed both free radical scavenging activity and α-amylase
inhibitory activity. Among the identified metabolites from MHPM, epicatechin
showed significant PTP1B docking interactions, and its MD simulations
revealed that PTP1B forms a stable protein–ligand complex with
epicatechin throughout the progression, which indicates that epicatechin
may be used as a promising scaffold in the development of the antidiabetic
drug after isolation from Pterocarpus marsupium.
Overall, these findings imply that Pterocarpus marsupium is a source of valuable metabolites that are accountable for its
antioxidant and antidiabetic properties.