Abstract:
Diabetes mellitus is a chronic disorder caused by efficient insulin utilization by the body. Diabetes mellitus is one of the most common underlying causes of high mortality rates among adults and children in the world. Diabetes can be treated by using oral antidiabetic medicines. The main aim of this study was to to assess and compare the metabolomic profiles and antidiabetic activities of Amaranthus caudatus and A. hypochondriacus.
In this study, proton nuclear magnetic resonance (¹H-NMR) was used to chemically profile the untargeted metabolites of Amaranthus caudatus and A. hypochondriacus leaves. Thirty-one (31) compounds were reported, with most of the annotated compounds being similar across both Amaranthus species. Alanine, leucine, trehalose, trigonelline, and chlorogenic acid, to name just a few, were annotated in both Amaranthus species. Trigonelline has been found to be high in concentration in
A. caudatus and low in concentration in A. hypochondriacus. Another compound that was annotated in this study, chlorogenic acid (CA), was higher in A. caudatus than in
A. hypochondriacus.
The antidiabetic activity of this study demonstrated that methanol extracts of both A. caudatus and A. hypochondriacus leaves had moderate α-glucosidase inhibitory activity. According to the IC50 values of α-glucosidase, acarbose (positive control) had an IC50 value of 1.274 mg/mL, which was lower than any of the plant extract values. The IC50 value of the plant extracts against α-glucosidase ranged from 6.71 mg/mL (A. hypochondriacus green variety) to 8.39 mg/mL (A. caudatus), respectively. Only the A. hypochondriacus (green variety) extract showed activity against α-amylase with the IC50 value of 4.32 mg/mL, which was higher than acarbose (positive control), which demonstrated an IC50 value of 0.23 mg/mL.
This study demonstrated that A. caudatus and the two varieties of A. hypochondriacus,
A. hypochondriacus red (AHR) and A. hypochondriacus green (AHG), respectively, have considerable antioxidant activity as evidenced by the ABTS radical scavenging assay. The methanol extracts showed dose-dependent inhibition of free radicals. The IC50 values of A. caudatus, A. hypochondriacus red variety and A. hypochondriacus green variety were 0.06 mg/mL, 0.03 mg/mL and 0.04 mg/mL, respectively, when tested using the ABTS radical scavenging assay. Vitamin C (positive control) showed an IC50 value of 5.5 μg/mL.
