Abstract

The prevalence of diabetes worldwide has reached epidemic proportions hence urgent need to invest in research of novel therapies for the treatment and management. Scientific investigation of medicinal plants is considered the best alternative and effective strategy for the discovery of novel therapeutic agents for this condition. This work was then designed to establish the anti-diabetic activity of ethanol extract of Emilia sonchifolia, a prominent plant in folklore medicine, using various in vitro techniques. The plant extract was assayed using—Haemoglobin glycosylation, Glucose uptake in yeast cells, α-amylase inhibition assay and α-glucosidase inhibition activity in comparison with the standard for each method. The plant extract was found to contain significant amount of total phenol (5.6%) and flavonoid (7.2%). The plant extracts significantly inhibited the haemoglobin glycosylation and the treatment of the yeast cells with the ethanol plant extracts, the glucose uptake by the yeast was found to increase in a dose-dependent manner. Also α-amylase and α-glucosidase activities were inhibited by the extract in a dose dependent manner with IC50 of 97.10±0.50 and 95.35±0.60 as compared to 46.10±0.25 and 45.33±0.68 for the standard (acarbose) respectively. These results confirmed that the extract of Emilia sonchifolia contained antidiabetic activity.

Keywords: Diabetes mellitus, Emilia sonchifolia, Haemoglobin glycosylation, Glucose uptake, α-amylase α-glucosidase