Background: Diabetes is a metabolic abnormality in the body caused by the high activity of the α-glucosidase enzyme in the hydrolysis of carbohydrates to glucose. Alpha-glucosidase inhibitors involved in the digestion of carbohydrates, play a key role in controlling diabetes. Thymus vulgaris is a species of flowering plant in the mint family Lamiaceae with a chromosome number of 2n = 30. The essential oil of this plant has phenolic compounds such as thymol, carvacrol, cymene, linalool, and pinene. The aim of this study was to investigate the inhibitory effect of the main compounds found in the thyme extract on the activity of alpha-glucosidase by in vitro methods.
Methods: Extract was used to dissolve thyme powder in distilled water solution. The inhibitory effect of the extracts on the activity of alpha-glucosidase enzyme was investigated. In this experiment, the concentration of each extract that was required to inhibit 50% of the enzyme activity (IC 50) was obtained and compared with the needed acarbose as a positive control.
Results: the results showed that aqueous extract of thyme Thymus vulgaris in all three concentrations (40, 20, 10, and 5 mg/ml) can inhibit the enzyme. And as expected, the concentration of 40 mg / ml was exercised the highest inhibitory effect on the enzyme. IC50 of aqueous extract of thyme Thymus vulgaris was equal to 29%.
Conclusion: Considering the effectiveness of plant extract compounds in in silico and in vitro studies, for supplemental studies, the effect of these plant compounds can be analyzed in vivo conditions.
