Original Articles
P Selvi and NS Muthiah
Abstract
Diabetes mellitus is characterized by hyperglycemia, which involves regulatory hormones such as insulin. In addition to this a mentionable enzyme alpha glucosidase also plays a vital role in carbohydrate metabolism, which in turn influences the blood glucose levels. The incidence of diabetes mellitus is increasing rapidly, it draws the necessity to develop novel anti-diabetic drugs. The present study explores the hypoglycemic property of Jalapeno extract, a pepper variance belonging to the family of Capsicum Annuum, which contains capsaicin predominantly. Alpha glucosidase enzyme inhibitory action was performed by UV spectroscopic analysis and the inhibitory activity of capsaicin extract was found to be 73% when compared with acarbose was found to 100%. Hence, literatures are suggestive of capsaicin owing anti-diabetic activity in diabetic mice models; this study extends to explore the anti-hyperglycemic nature of jalapeno extract by its inhibitory effect on alpha glucosidase enzyme.