Analysis of genetic diversity of Cucurbita ficifolia Bouché from different regions of Mexico, using AFLP markers and study of its hypoglycemic effect in mice

Abstract

Several studies have reported remarkable hypoglycemic property of the aqueous extract of different varieties of the fruit of Curcubita ficifolia. The purpose of this paper was to conduct a comparative study of the genetic diversity of C. ficifolia leaves collected in some regions of Mexico by AFLP and to determine if the aqueous extracts of the fruits with distinct phenotypic characteristics have similar hypoglycemic effects. The leaves and fruits of chilacayote from Hidalgo, Tlaxcala, Michoacán, Puebla and Mexico City were gathered. The DNA samples of the leaves were analyzed using AFLP. A binary matrix of presence-absence was built, and a dendrogram was obtained with the UPGMA method. For the evaluation of the hypoglycemic effect, the aqueous extract of the fruits was prepared and administrated to normal CD-1 male mice. Molecular analysis by AFLP exhibited an 89.4–99.4% of similarity in the genome of the all analyzed samples from different regions. However, the dendogram reached two groups with different morphological characteristics. Independent of the region and the morphological characteristics, all the fruits showed hypoglycemic effect, which in some cases was more effective compared to glibenclamide, as it was the case of the fruits from Ixtapaluca, State of Mexico. The data obtained provide information about the potential of C. ficifolia fruits for development of functional food or nutraceutical product, or a phytomedicine.