In vitro antidiabetic activity of leaves and seeds of Boerhavia diffusa

Vasundhara C.C.S and Gayathri Devi S* 
Department of Biochemistry, Biotechnology and Bioinformatics, Avinashilingam Institute for Home Science and Higher Education for Women, Coimbatore–43, TamilNadu, India

Abstract
Boerhavia diffusa (Punarnava) is one of the famous medicinal plant used in the treatment of a large number of human ailments as mentioned in Ayurveda, Charaka Samhita, and Sushrita Samhita. The whole plant or its parts are known to have medicinal properties and have a long history of use by Indians particularly the tribal people. The present work was carried out to evaluate the inhibitory activity of different extracts of Boerhavia diffusa on α-amylase, α-glucosidase and yeast cells at varying concentrations. From the results, it is clear that ethanol extracts of both the leaves and seeds of Boerhavia diffusa shows strong inhibitory activity against α-amylase and α-glucosidase. The results obtained from the present study indicates that Boerhavia diffusa can be used as a better therapeutic agent for free radical related disorders.
Keywords: Boerhavia diffusa, α-amylase, α-glucosidase