ABSTRACT

Diabetes mellitus is a metabolic disorder of glucose metabolism. The management of blood glucose level is the hallmark in the treatment ofthis disease. This may be achieved through the use of oral hypoglycemic drugs such as sulfonylureas, metformin, insulin secretagogues, and alpha amylase, alpha glucosidase and pancreatic lipase inhibitors. The purpose ofthe present study was to investigate the inhibitory effect of methanol plant extract of Cocos nucifera on the activities of alpha amylase, alpha glucosidase and pancreatic lipase. This was performed using porcine pancreatic alpha amylase from Aspergillus oryzae and pancreatic lipase. Highest concentration of methanol plant extract of Cocos nucifera possesses the highest percentage inhibitory activity against amylase (B.N lmg/ml (38.35±0.21%), E.A lmg/ml (46.32±0.3676%) and pancreatic lipase (B.N lmg/ml (60.19±2.41%), E.A lmg/ml (67.11±0.46%) comparable to the standard drugs, acarbose (80.14±1.10%) and orlistat (60.19±2.41%). Kinetic analysis revealed that the methanol extract of both plants inhibited the alpha amylase uncompetitively but displayed mixed noncompetitive mode ofinhibition towards alpha glucosidase and pancreatic lipase. It can be concluded that methanol extracts of Cocos nucifera exhibited a potent inhibitory activity on the two enzymes studied.