ABSTRACT

Diabetes mellitus is a metabolic disorder of glucose metabolism. The management of blood glucose level is the hallmark in the treatment of this disease. This may be achieved through the use of oral hypoglycemic drugs such as sulfonylureas, metformin, insulin secretagogues, alpha amylase, alpha glucosidase and pancreatic ipase inhibitors. The purpose of the present study was to investigate the inhibitory effect of methanol plant extract of Cocos nucfera on the activities of alpha amylase and pancreatic lipase. This was performed using porcine pancreatic alpha arnylase 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 1mg/mi (38.35±0.21%), E.A 1mg/mi (46.32±0.3676%) and pancreatic lipase (B.N 1mg/mi (60.19±2.41%), E.A 1mg/mi (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 cocos nucifera displayed mixed noncompetitive mode of inhibition towards alpha amylase and pancreatic lipase. It can be concluded that methanol extracts of Cocos nucfera exhibited a potent inhibitory activity on the two enzymes studied.