Preliminary Studies on Antidiabetic, Antimicrobial and Antioxidant Activities of Rare Medicinal Plant Epaltes divaricata (Linn.)

Pharmaceutical industries are still in the hunt of effective scavengers for free radicals from the unexplored medicinal plants. About 80,000 species of plants are utilized for treating various diseases in different systems of Indian medicine. Many pharmaceutical companies giving importance in plant-derived drugs mainly due to the current widespread belief that 'Green Medicine' is safe and more dependable than the costly synthetic drugs, which have adverse side effects. The objective of the study is isolation of Phytochemical active constituents, Antidiabetic, antimicrobial and antioxidant activities of the rare Antidiabetic medicinal plant Epaltes divaricata (Linn.) since the selected plant has varied medicinal properties used in Ayurveda. This valuable plant is used in traditional Ayurvedic medicine to alleviate jaundice, diabetes mellitus, urethral discharges and acute dyspepsia. It is also regarded as a diaphoretic, diuretic and a stimulating expectorant. The methanol extract of Epaltes divaricata L. showed excellent antimicrobial activity against bacteria and fungi. Phytochemical analysis was carried out for the same extract by two different standard methods and which confirmed the presence of steroids, triterpenoids and phenolic compounds. Decreasing of postprandial hyperglycemia is a therapeutic approach for treating diabetes mellitus. This can be achieved in current trends through the inhibition of carbohydrate hydrolyzing enzymes such as alpha glucosidase and alpha amylase. Agents with α-amylase and α-glucosidase inhibitory activity are very useful as oral anti hypoglycemic agents for the control of hyperglycemia in patients who have diabetes mellitus. In this study the methanol extract exhibited above 50% of inhibition in all standard concentration.