Screening of Aqueous Extract of Persea americana Seeds for Alpha-Glucosidase Inhibitors

Activity of α-glucosidase enzyme in the gastrointestinal tract has been implicated in postprandial hyperglycaemia. If not properly controlled, postprandial hyperglycaemia might progress to diabetes mellitus, a metabolic syndrome. Diabetes is associated with many complications such as retinopathy, heart attack, nephropathy, neuropathy, stroke, and lower limb amputation. Antidiabetic medications presently in use have little effect on postprandial glycaemic excursion and hence do not bring down the blood glucose level to baseline. This study extracted, fractionated, and screened the aqueous extract of Persea americana seeds for hypoglycaemic potential. Inhibitory effects of the fractions and subfractions of the extract on α-glucosidase activity were investigated. The most active subfraction was subjected to Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) and gas chromatography mass spectroscopy (GC-MS) analysis to elucidate the active components. The active subfraction showed a significant inhibition (p < 0.05) on α-glucosidase. The subfraction competitively inhibits α-glucosidase (with IC50 = 09.48 ± 0.58 μg/mL), though less potent than the standard drug, acarbose (IC50 = 06.45 ± 0.47 μg/mL). FTIR analysis of the subfraction showed the presence of carbonyl group, hydroxy group, carboxyl group, double bonds, methylene, and methyl groups. GC-MS analysis suggests the presence of cis-11,14-eicosadienoic acid, catechin, and chlorogenic acid as the active components. In conclusion, the components obtained from this study can be synthesised in the laboratory to further confirm their hypoglycaemic activity. The most active subfraction can be explored further to confirm its inhibitory activity against the enzyme and to determine its extent in the treatment of diabetes mellitus in vivo.