Inhibitory effects of plant extracts and in Silico screening of the bioactive compounds against α-glucosidase

α-glucosidase is a primary carbohydrate digestive enzyme, present in the brush border of the small intestine that acts on the 1–4 associated α-glucose residues and could play an effective role in overall glycemic control. Berberis lycium and Fagonia cretica extracts are traditionally being used as antidiabetic. In the present study, ethanolic and methanolic extracts of B. lycium and F. cretica were tested against α-glucosidase. Furthermore, the isolated phytochemicals of these plants were screened computationally for the evaluation of active compounds. An in vitro assay, the Ethanol and methanol-based extracts of B. lycium and F. cretica for α-glucosidase inhibitory potential at a concentration range of 7.81–1000 µg/ml was used. The α-glucosidase inhibitory effect of extracts was compared based on their resulting IC50 values. The result showed that the extracts showed potent inhibitory activity against alpha-glucosidase. Methanolic extract of B. lycium with an IC50 value of 34.99 µg/ml was the most potentextract. The rest of the extracts showed moderate inhibitory activity with an IC50 value in the range of 48.17 µg/ml, to 66.53 µg/ml. The reported compounds were docked against α-glucosidase along with standard inhibitor (acarbose) to check the inhibitory potential of these compounds using computational tools. Among the 38 phytochemicals, phytic acid and sindamine showed remarkable interaction with α-glucosidase active site residues with docking score -20.0204 and -18.2239 respectively, while quercetin and palmatine-CHCl3 showed comparable docking score -14.7862 and -14.1882 respectively with the standard acarbose having docking score -15.5940 against α-glucosidase. We further validate our results in vitro by using. We concluded from the results that phytochemical extracted from medicinal plants show good potency and however in future in vivo studies are needed to cure diabetes mellitus.