Abstract
Diabetes mellitus is an important social and medical problem, as it causes the development of dangerous complications that lead to disability and mortality. This disease is characterized by a multi-vector pathogenesis that requires a comprehensive approach to treatment. Due to the use of mixtures of medicinal plants in the treatment of diabetes, it is possible to cover all aspects of the development of this disease and its complications, because the combination of different medicinal plants contain more biologically active substances that affect all parts of the pathogenetic mechanism of diabetes mellitus and its complications. Plant biocompounds have a wide range of pharmacological action and various mechanisms of influence on the development of diabetes and diabetic angiopathies (inactivation of the antioxidant defense system, activation of lipid peroxidation and the development of oxidative stress). In addition, the niche of the pharmaceutical market of Ukraine with phytomixtures is almost empty.
 The aim of the work was to study the total flavonoid content in some herbal mixtures, which have established hypoglycemic, hypolipidemic and antioxidant activity in previous studies in vivo
 The study of the total flavonoid content in herbal samples was carried out by UV-spectrophotometry with the recording of the absorption spectrum of complexation product of flavonoids with aluminum chloride (λmax 415 nm) in terms of rutin.
 According to the results of UV-spectrophotometric determination, it was found that the total flavonoid content in the herbal mixture No 3 was 1.47 ± 0.04%, in the herbal mixture No 4 – 1.78 ± 0.04%, in the herbal mixture No 7 – 1.29 ± 0.02%, in the herbal mixture No 13 – 1.16 ± 0.02% and in the herbal mixture No 19 – 3.62 ± 0.06% in terms of rutin.
 It was found that the best flavonoid content (3.62 ± 0.06%) was found in the plant mixture № 19, which contains nettle leaves, dandelion roots, blueberry leaves, rose hips and peppermint herb. Phytochemical studies may indicate a correlation between the content of flavonoids and pharmacological properties of the studied mixtures, because the functional hydroxyl groups of the latter cause strong antioxidant activity by neutralizing free radicals, chelation of heavy metal ions, increasing the activity of antioxidant protection products, which has been confirmed in previous in vivo and in vitro studies.
Highlights
Diabetes mellitus is characterized by a rapid increase in the rate of spread and severe complications e.g. angiopathy, which significantly impairs the prognosis and life quality of patients, so it belongs to the global health problems. [1, 2]
The results of spectrophotometric determination of the total flavonoid content in terms of rutin are presented in figs. 1–2
The sufficient content of flavonoids in the studied herbal mixtures may indicate the ability of these mixtures to prevent the development of oxidative stress, which is the main pathogenic mechanism of diabetic angiopathies [12]
Summary
Diabetes mellitus is characterized by a rapid increase in the rate of spread and severe complications e.g. angiopathy, which significantly impairs the prognosis and life quality of patients, so it belongs to the global health problems. [1, 2]. The pathogenesis of diabetes includes insulin resistance and, due to relative insulin deficiency, a decrease in the secretory function of pancreatic β-cells and a decrease in the protective activity of the antioxidant system, promotion of lipid peroxidation and oxidative stress, while plant biologically active compounds have different mechanisms of pharmacological correction of these metabolic abnormalities [19, 20]. In this regard, the important biologically active substances are hydroxylated polyphenolic compounds, namely flavonoids. Functional hydroxyl groups in flavonoids mediate their antioxidant effects by scavenging free radicals and/ or by chelating metal ions [23, 24]
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