Indonesian Vegetables: Searching for Antioxidant and Antidiabetic Therapeutic Agents

Diabetes mellitus prevalence in Indonesia reached 19.5 million cases, which has affected the productive age population. The indigenous people of Indonesia are blessed with the second largest biodiversity in the world, including vegetables, which are also prepared as medicaments. Vegetables are well-known as natural antioxidants which evolved in metabolic disease prevention, including diabetes mellitus. One of the Government of Indonesia’s strategic plans in health is to develop new antidiabetic from nature. In this study, nineteen vegetable species were collected and evaluated for their antioxidant activity followed by computational-based bioprospecting. The study indicated Ipomoea aquatica, Paederia foetida, Plumbago zeylanica, Nauclea pallida, Sauropus androgynus, Wrightia pubescens, and Psophocarpus tetragonolobus to contain high antioxidant components. Computational experiments on chemical constituents previously reported from the same species showed potent compounds with high affinity against α-glucosidase (3a4a). 7-O-β-D-glucopyranosyl-dihydroquercetin-3-O-α-D-glucopyranoside 1, stigmasterol 7, and chitanone 12 are the most potent compounds from Ipomoea aquatica, Paederia foetida, and Plumbago zeylanica, respectively, which are superior to a standard drug, acarbose. The four vegetable species are feasible for conventional drug sources or developed as botanical dosage according to the Indonesian government’s strategic plan. Further studies are necessary to ensure adequate preclinical and clinical data to meet the requirement of safe and potent medicine. Nevertheless, Nauclea pallida and Psophocarpus tetragonolobus are valuable species with potent yet understudied antioxidant sources.