Activity of Gaharu (Aquilaria malaccensis Lam) Leaves Extract and Fraction as Herbal Drug Against α-Glucosidase Inhibition

Abstract

Diabetes mellitus in 2020 in the world was 422 million people, and 1,6 million deaths are directly attributed to diabetes each year. Diabetes mellitus is a disease characterized by increased levels of glucose in the blood due to impaired function of the pancreas gland in producing the hormone insulin. One of the mechanisms of action of the antidiabetic drug class is α-glucosidase enzyme inhibitors. Compounds that play a role in the inhibitory activity of the α-glucosidase enzyme from plant extracts are flavonoids. Agarwood (Aquilaria malaccensis Lam) plants contain secondary metabolites such as alkaloids, flavonoids, saponins, quinones, tannins and steroids/triterpenoids. Gaharu leaves were extracted by maceration method using 96% ethanol solvent, then the extract obtained was fractionated using a liquid-liquid extraction method with n-hexane, ethylacetate and methanol-water as solvents. The extracts and fractions obtained were tested for inhibition of the α-glucosidase enzyme as measured by a microplate reader at a wavelength of 405 nm and acarbose as a comparison. The inhibitory activity of the α-glucosidase enzyme is expressed by the IC50  value. The inhibitory activity of α-glucosidase enzyme from extracts and fractions of n-hexane, ethylacetate and methanol-water were 90,87 µg/ml; 908,53 µg/ml; 89,78 µg/ml and 35,89 µg/ml and acarbose 19,08 µg/ml. The methanol-water fraction showed a very strong inhibitory activity against the α-glucosidase enzyme.