Studies on in vitro evaluation of antidiabetic potentials of watermellon and pomegranate peels

Abstract

Diabetes is a metabolic disorder which results due to deficiency in insulin and its metabolism. At present, the prevalence of Diabetes has increased worldwide and predicted to increase to greater extent in future generations. Among various therapeutic approaches implemented to prevent diabetes is to regulate the blood glucose levels by various mechanisms. This is being assessed by in vitro antidiabetic assays such as inhibition of carbohydrate digesting enzymes and non-enzymatic glycosylation of haemoglobin. Inhibition of alpha-amylase enzyme suppresses the level of production of glucose and by inhibiting glycosylation of haemoglobin the level of blood glucose is maintained. Hence the current work focuses on investigating the anti-diabetic activity of fruit peel of Citrullus lanatus (watermelon) and Punica granatum (pomegranate) using the above mentioned assays. Our results suggested that methanol extract of Citrullus lanatus and Punica granatum peels showed potential anti-diabetic activity in vitro which indicates that these extracts can be taken further for in vivo studies.

Keywords: fruit peels, antidiabetic activity, α-amylase enzyme, glycosylated haemoglobin