Assessment of in vitro anti-diabetic activity of Ficus glomerata

Pancreas is the primary organ involved in sensing the organism’s dietary and energetic states via glucose concentration in the blood and in response to elevated blood glucose, insulin is secreted. Diabetes mellitus is a metabolic disorder which results from defects in insulin secretion. Among the various methods of Diabetes management, herbal products are best alternative drug with zero side-effects. The aim of our work was to assess the phytochemicals qualitatively and to evaluate the anti-diabetic activity of Ficus glomerata gum using different polar and non-polar solvent extract. The in vitro alpha-amylase and alpha-glucosidase inhibitory studies were performed using different concentration of extract and compared with a standard drug. There was a dose dependent increase in percentage inhibitory activity against these intestinal enzymes by all the extracts. Our findings revealed that among the all extracts, aqueous extract showed efficient anti-diabetic activity. This may be due to the presence of maximum phytochemicals in aqueous gum extract which is analyzed by preliminary phytochemical screening. At the concentration of 1000 μg/ml the gum showed appreciable alpha amylase and alpha glucosidase inhibitory activity of 82.76 % and 80.09 % respectively than the commercial anti-diabetic drug.