IN VITRO STUDIES OF SOME EDIBLE SPICES ON PANCREATIC LIPASE INHIBITORY ACTIVITY

Pancreatic lipase inhibitory effect of some edible spices in light of percent inhibition, efficacy, reversibility/ irreversibility and effect of pH on inhibition is presented here. Lipase inhibitory activities of methanolic extracts of eighteen spices were evaluated. Extracts of Zanthoxylum armatum, Cinnamomum tamala, Syzygium aromaticum and Myristica fragrans were considered to be of high potency in synthetic substrate assay. Only Syzygium aromaticum showed high potency in natural substrate based lipase assay. Zanthoxylum armatum extract displayed lowest IC50 of 9.0 μg/mL. On dialysis, all extracts lost their lipase inhibitory activity indicating reversible nature of inhibition. pH significantly affected the performance of spice extracts during inhibition of pancreatic lipase. Most of the extracts lost their pancreatic lipase inhibitory activity at pH 3.0 with the exception of Brassica nigra and Cinnamomum tamala. Results showed spice are good source of pancreatic lipase inhibitor and its potential as drug for obesity can be explored by addressing various issues.