Carbohydrates Test and In Vitro Inhibitory Activities of Alpha- Glucosidase and Alpha-Amylase of Stem Bark Extracts of Musanga Cecropioides

Elevated postprandial hyperglycemia is one of the risk factors linked to diabetes. Decreasing postprandial hyperglycemia is possible by inhibiting certain carbohydrate hydrolyzing enzymes like α-amylase and α-glucosidase. Our study aimed to assess Oral Maltose and Starch tolerance Test, in the presence of the aqueous extract of Musanga cecropioides in male rats and to measure the α-glucosidase and α-amylase inhibiting activities in vitro in the presence of the fractions obtained from M. cecropioides. The results obtained show that the aqueous extract at the doses used did not significantly reduce the Area Under the Curve in comparison with the groups of animals receiving only water and maltose or those receiving water with starch. In contrast, glibenclamide at a dose of 10 mg/kg induced a significant drop in both the Area Under the Curve induced by maltose and that induced by starch respectively. As regards the inhibition of α-glucosidase activity, the fractions A, B, C, and D showed respective median inhibitory concentrations of 14.84, 83.10, 69.86, and 0.70 μg/mL compared to acarbose (positive control) and fraction D had the best half-maximal inhibitory concentration (IC50) of 0.70 μg/mL. In terms of inhibition of α-amylase activity, the median inhibitory concentrations (IC50) for fraction A, Fraction B, Fraction C, and fraction D were 63.51, 221.5, 691.1 and 604.4 μg/mL respectively. This study shows that fraction A has α-glucosidase and α-amylase inhibiting activities, while fraction D has very pronounced α-glucosidase activity. It would be necessary to further split fractions A and D, to determine the compounds responsible for their activity of inhibiting α-glucosidase and α-amylase.