Salt-tolerant plants grow in a wide variety of saline habitats, from coastal regions, salt marshes and mudflats to inland deserts, salt flats and steppes. Halophytes living in these extreme environments have to deal with frequent changes in salinity level. This can be done by developing adaptive responses including the synthesis of several bioactive molecules. Consequently, several salt marsh plants have traditionally been used for medical, nutritional, and even artisanal purposes. Currently, an increasing interest is granted to these species because of their high content in bioactive compounds (primary and secondary metabolites) such as polyunsaturated fatty acids, carotenoids, vitamins, sterols, essential oils (terpenes), polysaccharides, glycosides, and phenolic compounds. These bioactive substances display potent antioxidant, antimicrobial, anti-inflammatory, and anti-tumoral activities, and therefore represent key-compounds in preventing various diseases (e.g. cancer, chronic inflammation, atherosclerosis and cardiovascular disorder) and ageing processes. The ongoing research will lead to the utilisation of halophytes as a new source of healthy products as functional foods, nutraceuticals or active principles in several industries. This contribution focuses on the ethnopharmacological uses of halophytes in traditional medicine and reviews recent investigations on their biological activities and nutraceuticals. The work is distributed according to the different families of nutraceuticals (lipids, vitamins, proteins, glycosides, phenolic compounds, etc.) discussing the analytical techniques employed for their determination. Information about the claimed health promoting effects of the different families of nutraceuticals is also provided together with data on their application.

Medicinal halophytes: potent source of health promoting biomolecules with medical, nutraceutical and food applications.

Diabetes mellitus is a complicated metabolic disorder that has gravely troubled the human health and quality of life. Conventional agents are being used to control diabetes along with lifestyle management. However, they are not entirely effective and no one has ever been reported to have fully recovered from diabetes. Numerous medicinal plants have been used for the management of diabetes mellitus in various traditional systems of medicine worldwide as they are a great source of biological constituents and many of them are known to be effective against diabetes. Medicinal plants with antihyperglycemic activities are being more desired, owing to lesser side-effects and low cost. This review focuses on the various plants that have been reported to be effective in diabetes. A record of various medicinal plants with their established antidiabetic and other health benefits has been reported. These include Allium sativa, Eugenia jambolana, Panax ginseng, Gymnema sylvestre, Momrodica charantia, Ocimum sanctum, Phyllanthus amarus, Pterocarpus marsupium, Trigonella foenum graecum and Tinospora cordifolia. All of them have shown a certain degree of antidiabetic activity by different mechanisms of action.

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A pharmacological appraisal of medicinal plants with antidiabetic potential.

The caper (Capparis L.): ethnopharmacology, phytochemical and pharmacological properties.

Gallic acid attenuates high-fat diet fed-streptozotocin-induced insulin resistance via partial agonism of PPARγ in experimental type 2 diabetic rats and enhances glucose uptake through translocation and activation of GLUT4 in PI3K/p-Akt signaling pathway

Diabetes is a serious metabolic disorder affecting the metabolism of carbohydrate, protein and fat. A number of studies have shown that diabetes mellitus is associated with oxidative stress, leading to an increased production of reactive oxygen species. Ficus deltoidea is traditionally used in Malaysia for regulating blood sugar, blood pressure and cholesterol levels. The use of F. deltoidea as an alternative medicinal herb is increasingly gaining popularity with the sale of F. deltoidea tea bags and capsules in the local market. The present study was undertaken to investigate the antidiabetic and antioxidant activities of the fruits from different varieties of F. deltoidea, employing in vitro methods. Two fruit varieties of F. deltoidea (var. angustifolia (SF) and var. kunstleri (BF)) were extracted separately using double-distilled water. The resulting aqueous extracts were partitioned using ethyl acetate to obtain the ethyl acetate and water fractions. The crude aqueous extracts and the corresponding fractions were evaluated for their phenolic, flavonoid, sugar and protein contents. Protein profiling of the extracts and fractions were also carried out by means of SDS-PAGE and SELDI-TOF MS. Antidiabetic activities were assessed based on the ability of the samples to inhibit yeast and mammalian α-glucosidase as well as α-amylase. Antioxidant capacities were examined by measuring the ability of the samples to reduce ferric ions and to scavenge DPPH, superoxide anion, ABTS and nitric oxide radicals. The crude extracts and fractions of SF and BF inhibited both yeast and rat intestinal α-glucosidases in a dose-dependent manner, but did not inhibit porcine pancreatic α-amylase. The water fraction of BF showed the highest percentage of α-glucosidase inhibition while having the highest amount of protein (73.33 ± 4.99 μg/mg fraction). All the extracts and fractions exhibited antioxidant activities, with SF crude extract showing the highest antioxidant activity and phenolic content (121.62 ± 4.86 mg/g extract). Fractionation of the crude extracts resulted in loss of antioxidant activities. There was no positive correlation between phenolic and flavonoid content with α-glucosidase inhibitory activities. However, phenolic content correlated well with antioxidant activities of the crude extracts but not with the fractions. The antioxidant activities of the fruits of F. deltoidea might be asserted by the phenolic content but other polar plant components were possibly involved in the antidiabetic properties. The study of these compounds having both antihyperglycemic and antioxidant activities may provide a new approach in the treatment of diabetes mellitus.

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Supriya Daniel

Papers

Anti-diabetic potential of alkaloid rich fraction from Capparis decidua on diabetic mice.