Antioxidant and Antidiabetic Activities of Ethanolic Leaf Extract of Melochia corchorifolia

Abstract

Polyphenolic extract of Melochia corchorifolia leaf has demonstrated high antioxidative 
activity and very promising anti-diabetic activities in vitro. The antioxidant and antidiabetic 
inhibition properties of the polyphenolic-rich extracts were also studied in this study and it 
revealed that the plant extract showed better activities than the conventional antidiabetic drug 
acarbose. The biological activity of Melochia corchorifolia leaf extracts was investigated. The 
maximum inhibition for the DPPH inhibition assay of Melochia corchorifolia was recorded at 
10 µg/ml, where the scavenging activity of the control drug (Ascorbic acid) was found to be 
better than that of the plant extract at all dosages except for 20 µg/ml and 50 µg/ml, where 
Melochia corchorifolia showed better activity than the control. The ABTS inhibition assay 
result showed that the activity of the extract and the control is dose-dependent. The ethanolic 
leaf extract of Melochia corchorifolia demonstrated significant antioxidant (DPPH IC₅₀: 66.63 
μg/mL; ABTS: 87.37 mM TE/g) and antidiabetic (α-amylase inhibition: 68.62 %) activities, 
surpassing acarbose in α-glucosidase inhibition (p < 0.05). The activity increases with an 
increase in the dosage. The best activity was recorded at the lowest dosage i.e., 10 µg/ml, 
where the plant extract inhibition activity was (6.474) at the same dosage against (27.394) of 
the positive control. This plant may hold the potential against diabetes.