Aporphine alkaloids identified from Xylopia aethiopica and their potential hypoglycemic and hypolipidemic activities

Abstract

Xylopia aethiopica has been widely utilized as food condiments in West African countries, as well as traditional medicine for diabetes, but the responsible components remain unknown. In this work, the probable active components in the contributing fraction were screened using bio-affinity ultrafiltration strategy targeting α-glucosidase and pancreatic lipase. Then, 11 alkaloids were identified, 9 of which were aporphines, including a new one. Further enzyme inhibitory validation of these compounds discovered that compounds 1, 2, 6 and 11 showed better α-glucosidase inhibition activity than positive control, among which compounds 1, 2 and 6 simultaneously possessed potent inhibition against pancreatic lipase. The hypoglycemic and hypolipidemic capacities of these screened compounds were verified by in vitro glucose consumption and lipid accumulation HepG2 cell models. This work provided solid evidences for the anti-diabetic benefit of X. aethiopica, and several aporphine alkaloids could be the responsible compounds for its promising hypoglycemic and hypolipidemic activities.