%0 Journal Article
%T Twenty Traditional Algerian Plants Used in Diabetes Therapy as Strong Inhibitors of 汐-Amylase Activity
%A Ihcen Khacheba
%A Amar Djeridane
%A Mohamed Yousfi
%J International Journal of Carbohydrate Chemistry
%D 2014
%I Hindawi Publishing Corporation
%R 10.1155/2014/287281
%X In the present work, we have studied the inhibitory effects of aqueous and alcoholic extracts of six Algerian medicinal plants known by their therapeutic virtues against diabetes. The total phenolic compounds content, assayed using Folin-Ciocalteu＊s reagent, of the samples ranged from 0.183ˋmg/g to 43.088ˋmg/g and from 1.197ˋmg/g to 7.445ˋmg/g, expressed as gallic acid equivalent (GAE), for the, respectively, whereas the total flavonoids concentrations, detected using 2% of the aluminium chloride, ranged from 0.41ˋmg/g to 11.613ˋmg/g and from 0.0097ˋmg/g to 1.591ˋmg/g, expressed as rutin equivalents (RE), for the aqueous and methanolic extracts, respectively. The major plants were found to inhibit enzymatic activities of Aspergillus oryzae-amylase in a concentration dependent manner. The values of the inhibition constants ( ) have been determined according to the Dixon and Lineweaver-Burk methods. The results showed that the values were less than 55ˋppm for the all extracts. A strong inhibition was found in the phenolic extract of Salvia officinalis with a of 8ˋppm. 1. Introduction Diabetes mellitus (DM) is a chronic metabolic disorder caused by an absolute or relative lack of resistance to insulin. It is characterized by hyperglycemia and accompanied by various chronic vascular complications [1每3]. About 171 million people worldwide have diabetes, which is likely to be more than double by 2030 and around 3.2 million deaths every year are attributable to complication of diabetes, six deaths every minute [4, 5]. One therapeutic approach to decrease the hyperglycemia is to retard and reduce the digestion and absorption of ingested carbohydrate hydrolyzing enzymes (such as 汐-amylase and/or 汐-glucosidase) in the digestive organs [6每10]. The inhibition of enzymes involved in the digestion of carbohydrates can significantly decrease the postprandial increase of blood glucose after a mixed carbohydrate diet by delaying the process of carbohydrate hydrolysis and absorption [6, 11每13]. Therefore, safer natural amylase and glucosidase inhibitors have been reported from plant sources [14每16]. Arising from their biodiversity and their wealth of active ingredients, plants have been used from antiquity as sources of medicament against various diseases. These properties are usually attributed to secondary metabolites that are the subject of a lot of research in this field. This is particularly the case of polyphenol plants that are widely renowned in therapeutics as anti-inflammatories, enzyme inhibitors, and antioxidants, particularly flavonoids [6, 17每19]. Plant
%U http://www.hindawi.com/journals/ijcc/2014/287281/