Total Phenolic, Total Flavonoid Content, and α-Glucosidase Inhibitory Activity of Centella asiatica (L.) Urb.

Abstract

Public awareness about the side effects of chemical drugs has increased in recent years. This has resulted in the rapid use of natural ingredients as medicine. Diabetes mellitus is one of the leading causes of death in the world. A large number of people with diabetes and the high level of need for drugs encourage efforts to find new sources of drugs. Centella asiatica (L.) Urb. has been widely used in folk medicine to treat several ailments, including antimicrobial, antioxidant, and anti-inflammation. However, the potential anti-diabetic activity of C. asiatica still needs to be explored. This present study aims to investigate the anti-diabetic potential of the aerial parts of C. asiatica (L.) Urb. by determining total phenolic and flavonoid content, also α-glucosidase inhibitory activity from ethanol extract, n-hexane, ethyl acetate, and water fractions. Bioassayguided fractionation has been carried out to identify the bioactive crude fractions responsible for αglucosidase inhibitory activity using in vitro study. The results showed that ethyl acetate fraction of C. asiatica afforded the highest total phenolic and flavonoid content by 14.41 ± 0.020 mg GAE/g extract and 48.43 ± 0.052 mg QE/g extract, respectively. In addition, this fraction also demonstrated the highest αglucosidase inhibitory activity with IC50 47.52 ± 0.030 µg/mL. The results indicated that C. asiatica has a potential source as a natural anti-diabetic agent.