Abstract:
Bilberry [
Vaccinium myrtillus
Linn. (Ericaceae)] fruit (VMF) has been traditional
ly
used for treatment of bladder stones, biliary disor
ders, scurvy, coughs, and lung
tuberculosis. VMF may have some pharmaceutical prop
erties owing to these uses, but
in
vivo
and
in vitro
studies are limited for clarification of medicinal
activity and its
antidiabetic and antioxidant properties are not inv
estigated in detail. Anti-amylase, anti-
glucosidase, and antioxidant activities of methanol
(ME), ethanol (EE), acetone (AE), and
water (WE) extracts of VMF were investigated. In ad
dition, some chemical compositions
were determined by using spectrophotometric methods
. Antidiabetic and antioxidant
activities of extracts were studied by using differ
ent tests such as
α
-amylase and
α
-
glucosidase inhibitory, total antioxidant, DPPH sca
venging activities according to
in vitro
methods at different concentrations (10-250
μ
g mL
-1
). Compared with the standards, ME,
WE, and EE showed strong total antioxidant activiti
es with IC
50
(
μ
g/mL) values of
24.46±0.34, 25.24±0.78, and 27.48±0.60, respectivel
y. At the same time, ME (IC
50
61.38±1.40
μ
g mL
-1
) and EE (IC
50
65.52±1.19
μ
g mL
-1
) demonstrated very effective
inhibitory activity against
α
-amylase and moderate inhibitory activity against
α
-
glucosidase. All extracts also showed high reducing
power, metal chelating activity,
superoxide anion, DPPH radical, and H
2
O
2
scavenging activities. Important relationships
were found between biological activity and chemical
composition by statistical analyses.
The VMF can be used as an antidiabetic and antioxid
ant source in medicinal and
pharmaceutical areas due to its chemical compositio
n. Anthocyanin contents may
influence the anti-amylase inhibition activity more
than phenolic and flavonoid contents.
Keywords:
Alpha-amylase, Anthocyanin, Glucosidase inhibition
, Flavonoid, Phenol.
