Hypoglycaemic Constituents of Stachytarpheta cayennensis Leaf

Abstract

The aqueous infusion (tea) of Stachytarpheta cayennensis leaves is used ethnomedically in Peru, Nigeria and other tropical countries for the management of diabetes. Oral administration (p. o.) of aqueous (125 mg/kg) and methanolic (2000 mg/kg) extracts of the leaves to alloxan-diabetic rats showed significant blood glucose reductions by 43 and 53 %, respectively, at the end of a 4 hour period similar to the strong effect of glibenclamide (5 mg/kg, p. o.). The methanolic extract was successively partitioned into ethyl acetate, butanol and water fractions, and the same test showed that the butanol fraction (2000 mg/kg) had the highest (50 %) hypoglycaemic activity at 4 hours after oral administration. It was also the most active fraction when tested in vitro [insulin release from an insulin secreting cell line (INS-1)] and was also active in normal rats and rats made hyperglycaemic by a glucose load. Its activity was comparable to that of glibenclamide (positive control) in these models. This active butanol fraction was subjected to chromatographic subfractionation; some subfractions reduced hyperglycaemia in alloxan-diabetic rats to 60 and 78 % and induced insulin release from the INS-1 cells; other subfractions, however, gave hyperglycaemic activities in vivo and inhibition of insulin release from the INS-1 cells. Three major compounds of the butanol fraction were isolated and characterised as 6β-hydroxyipolamide, ipolamide and isoverbascoside; they increased insulin secretion from INS-1 cells to 125, 128 and 127 %, respectively, whereas glibenclamide increased insulin secretion to 157 %. The results justify the ethnomedical use of the plant in the management of diabetes and suggest that the butanol fraction and some of its isolated constituents mediate their actions primarily by stimulating insulin release directly.

Abbreviations

AQ, H₂O: aqueous/water extract of the leaf

DNC: diabetic negative control rats given only saline

GLB: diabetic positive control rats given 5 mg/kg of
glibenclamide (a standard antidiabetic agent)

HEPES: N-(2-hydroxylethyl)piperazine-N’-2-ethanesulphonic acid

HPLC: high pressure liquid chromatography

INS-1: rat insulinoma cell line (insulin secreting cell line)

KRBH: Krebs-Ringer-bicarbonate buffer with HEPES

NGR: normoglycaemic control rats given only saline

RPMI medium: Roswell Park Memorial Institute medium

SCA, EtOAc: ethyl acetate partition fraction of SCM

SCB, BuOH: butanol partition fraction of SCM

SCM, MeOH: methanolic extract of the leaf

SCW, H₂O: aqueous/water partition fraction of SCM

TLC: thin layer chromatography

T_o: Time (0 h) of administration of the extract/fraction/drug

T_t: 1, 2 and 4 h after administration of the extract/fraction/drug

VLC: vacuum liquid chromatography

Key words

Diabetes mellitus - Stachytarpheta cayennensis - Verbenaceae - hypoglycaemic activity - INS-1 cells - alloxan-diabetic rats - hyperglycaemic rats

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