Evaluation of Anti-Diabetic Property of Extracts of Different Plant Parts of Salacia chinensis Linn.

Ankur Patwardhan

doi:10.4172/2376-0214.1000107

Abstract

Plants from the Western Ghats Mountains (a global biodiversity hot-spot) in western India are increasingly gaining importance for their newfound disease curative properties. One such example is an extract of the plant, Salacia chinensis Linn., the compound Salacinol which (along with related compounds) is increasingly being used in the treatment of diabetes. Of late, demand for this extract has increased at a rapid pace, leading to widespread overharvesting of Salacia roots (the plant part predominantly used for extraction) and consequent population decline by over 50%. Such overexploitation in a global biodiversity hotspot threatens the ecological sustainability of this fragile ecosystem and global health care, as well as local livelihoods. One strategy to relieve the harvest pressure on wild population while attempting to cater to the ever increasing demand of raw material by the pharmaceutical industry is to utilize alternative plant parts and raise viable commercial cultivation. With a view to developing a sustainable harvest strategy, this paper presents an assessment of anti-diabetic activity of alternative plant parts (stems, seeds, leaves). We present the results of in-vitro evaluation of α- glucosidase inhibition activity by S. chinensis extracts with respect to parameters like plant part, age of plant and effective solvent system. Promising α- glucosidase enzyme inhibition results were obtained from crude extracts of stems and seeds. The highest inhibition levels demonstrated by aqueous extracts of roots and stems were 80.43 ± 1.14 % (IC50-22.17 μg/ml) and 81.2 ± 0.41 % (IC50- 22.23 μg/ml) respectively, whereas for successive aqueous extracts of seeds inhibition levels were 56.0 ± 1.30 % (IC50-79.04 μg/ml). By demonstrating that stems and seeds of S. chinensis can be used as an alternative to roots, our study has the potential to form the basis for a sustainable path forward for the harvesting of this plant for medicinal purposes.

Highlights

Salacia chinensis Linn. (Synonym- Salacia prinoides) (Figure 1), Family-Hippocrateaceae, is an evergreen climbing shrub or a small tree occurring in India, Sri Lanka, China, Malaysia, Java and Phillipines [1,2,3]
Within traditional medicinal systems, the use of S. chinensis has been historically restricted to its use as an anti-diabetic agent; Salacinol, kotalanol, mangiferin, neosalacinol and neokotalanol have been shown to be major inhibitors of α-glucosidase enzyme [4,5], the enzyme that breaks down ingested carbohydrates and starches
Morphological characteristics of the samples were compared with botanical voucher specimens at the Botanical Survey of India, Pune (Accession no. 51570) and the samples were confirmed as Salacia chinensis

Summary

Introduction

Salacia chinensis Linn. (Synonym- Salacia prinoides) (Figure 1), Family-Hippocrateaceae, is an evergreen climbing shrub or a small tree occurring in India, Sri Lanka, China, Malaysia, Java and Phillipines [1,2,3]. Within traditional medicinal systems, the use of S. chinensis has been historically restricted to its use as an anti-diabetic agent; Salacinol, kotalanol, mangiferin, neosalacinol and neokotalanol have been shown to be major inhibitors of α-glucosidase enzyme [4,5], the enzyme that breaks down ingested carbohydrates and starches. These plant compounds act by reducing the absorption of glucose into the blood stream

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Conclusion