Determination of the total content of flavonoids in herbal mixtures with anti-diabetic activity

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.