Investigation of Antidiabetic Antihyperlipidemic and Antioxidant activity of Ensete Superbum roxb Cheesman seeds and their active constituents

Abstract

The herbal medicines are used in traditional medicinal system for ages and are being used in medicinal practice since thousands of years. These natural products made a great contribution in human health. Diabetes Mellitus is a metabolic disorder of carbohydrate, lipid and protein metabolism with hyperglycemia resulting from defective insulin secretion or insulin action or both. Management of diabetes mellitus without any side effects is still a challenge in current clinical practice. This creates an increasing demand to use natural products with hypoglycemic activity, unfortunately insulin and oral hypoglycemic medications have undesirable side effects. Medicinal plants are good sources of natural antioxidants believed to exert their effects. In order to identify the herbal based plant drugs, the present study was focused on Pharmacognostical, Phytochemical and Pharmacological studies on seeds of Ensete superbum. Ensete superbum seeds were collected from Kottakal, Kerala, during the month of June. It was identified and authenticated by Dr. R. Prabakaran, Head of the Department of Botany, Vivekananda College of Arts and Science for Women, Tiruchengode, Tamilnadu. In conclusion, the present study on investigation of antidiabetic, antihyperlipidemic and antioxidant activity of the seeds of Ensete superbum and their active constituents provides the research basis for finding valuable medicinal agents in the treatment of diabetes mellitus and associated cardiovascular complications such as CHD. The seed extracts were shown to possess in vitro antioxidant properties. Among them, the ethanolic extract Ensete superbum was found to be more potent. The ethyl acetate and n-butanol fractions of Ensete superbum were studied for its in vitro enzyme inhibitory property. The in vivo studies carried out using only ethyl acetate fraction of Ensete superbum on HFD-STZ induced diabetic rats proved that, the potent hypoglycemic and hypolipidemic activity. Detailed biochemical and histological evidences were provided to prove the activity.