New insights into seaweed polyphenols on glucose homeostasis

Abstract

Context: Polyphenol-rich marine macroalgae are gaining dietary importance due to their influence over diabetes mellitus and the role as a vital source of high-value nutraceuticals. Their assorted beneficial effects on human health include competitive inhibition of digestive enzymes, varying the activity of hepatic glucose-metabolizing enzymes, lowering the plasma glucose levels, and lipid peroxidation, delaying the aging process. Objective: In this paper, we review the health beneficial effects of polyphenols and phlorotannins from brown seaweeds with special emphasis on their inhibitory effects on carbohydrate-metabolizing enzymes. Methods: A survey of literature from databases such as Sciencedirect, Scopus, Pubmed, Springerlink, and Google Scholar from the year 1973 to 2013 was done to bring together the information relating to drug discovery from brown seaweeds as a source for diabetes treatment. Results: Over the past two decades, 20 different bioactive polyphenols/phlorotannins have been isolated and studied from 10 different brown algae. Discussion of the positive effect on the inhibition of enzymes metabolizing carbohydrates in both in vitro and in vivo experiments are included. Conclusion: Despite the recent advancements in isolating bioactive compounds from seaweeds with potential health benefit or pharmaceutical behavior, studies on the polyphenol effectiveness on glucose homeostasis in human beings are very few in response to their functional characterization. Added research in this area is required to confirm the close connection of polyphenol rich seaweed-based diet consumption with glucose homeostasis and the exciting possibility of prescribing polyphenols to treat the diabetes pandemic.

Phlorotannins

“…Ultimately, there is a need to find effective molecules with less or none side effects. Polyphenol-rich molecules from marine seaweeds show promising effects in treating diabetes mellitus in terms of digestive enzymes, hepatic glucose metabolizing enzymes, lipid peroxidation and lowering the glucose plasma levels (Murugan et al, 2015). Lee and Jeon (2015) conducted a study on intake of dieckol-rich extract and measured the glycemic parameters, serum biochemistry and hematology.…”

Nutraceutical Potential of Five Mexican Brown Seaweeds

“…ese activities are related to the presence of phenolic compounds, phlorotannins, pigments, tocopherols, polysaccharides, fatty acids, and peptides in the seaweed extracts [15,[20][21][22][23][24][25][26][27][28]. e main compounds reported as potent α-amylase and α-glucosidase inhibitors are as follows: phloroglucinol derivatives such as dieckol, 8,8′-bieckol, phlorofucofuroeckol, fucophloroethol, and phlorotannins with low PGU [23,25,[29][30][31], fucoidan [3,32,33], and oleic, linoleic, and eicosapentaenoic acids [24].…”

Curcumin induced apoptosis via PI3K/Akt-signalling pathways in SKOV3 cells

“…The PI3K and the downstream serine/threonine kinase Akt (also known as protein kinase B, PKB) modulate cellular activation, inflammatory response and apoptosis (Fruman & Cantley 2002;Zhang et al 2008). More importantly, the PI3K/Aktsignalling pathway is frequently activated in many types of human cancers including colorectal carcinoma (Luo et al 2003;Kritikou et al 2014;Murugan et al 2015) and has been linked to cancer development. Phosphoinositide 3-kinase (PI3K)-signalling pathway components are crucial to many aspects of cell growth and survival in colorectal carcinoma (CRC) via its regulation in diverse physiologic processes that include cell proliferation, cell-cycle progression, invasion and apoptosis (Kermorgant et al 2001).…”