α-glucosidase inhibition by hexane extract from aerial parts of Descurainia sophia L.schuar and Fumaria vaillantii Loisel

Diabetes is a progressive metabolic disorder that affects many people in the world. One way to prevent any after meal upsurge in blood glucose levels is to inhibit intestinal carbohydrate hydrolyzing enzymes such as α-glucosidase.

To investigate the inhibitory effect of hexane extract obtained from separated aerial parts of Descurainia sophia L.schuar and Fumaria vaillantii Loisel on α-glucosidase activity.

After preparation of hexane extracts from aerial parts of the plants, their effect on α-glucosidase activity was investigated in seven different concentrations. Enzyme activity was assayed in triplicate using pNPG as substrate. The amount of produced pNP was determined at 405 nm wavelength. Acarbose was used as the positive control.

Among the aerial parts of two plants, Descurainia sophia's flower hexane extract at 200 mg/ml concentration, and Fumaria vaillantii's leaf hexane extract at 300 mg/ml concentration, significantly inhibited activity of the enzyme. IC50 values of the above mentioned extracts were 0.88 and 1.04 mg/ml respectively. The type of inhibition for the Descurainia sophia flower was mixed inhibition (Competitive-noncompetitive) and for the Fumaria vaillantii leaf was uncompetitive inhibition. The results of GC-MS analysis of active extracts, revealed the presence of phenylpropanoid and phenol which could be responsible for the observed inhibitory effects on the α-glucosidase activity.

Hexane extracts from Descurainia sophia's flower and Fumaria vaillantii's leaf have an effective α-glucosidase inhibitory capacity for future research, with the goal of achieving pharmacologically categorized inhibitors.