Antioxidant and Antidiabetic Activities of Leaf Extracts of Lepisanthes senegalensis (Sapindaceae)
Serigne Ibra Mbacke Dieng *
Laboratory of Pharmacognosy and Botany, Faculty of Medicine, Pharmacy and Dental Surgery, Cheikh Anta Diop University, Dakar, Senegal.
Abdou Sarr
Laboratory of Pharmacognosy and Botany, Faculty of Medicine, Pharmacy and Dental Surgery, Cheikh Anta Diop University, Dakar, Senegal.
William Diatta
Laboratory of Pharmacognosy and Botany, Faculty of Medicine, Pharmacy and Dental Surgery, Cheikh Anta Diop University, Dakar, Senegal.
Abdou Karim Labou
Laboratory of Pharmacognosy and Botany, Faculty of Medicine, Pharmacy and Dental Surgery, Cheikh Anta Diop University, Dakar, Senegal.
Kady Diatta-Badji
Laboratory of Pharmacognosy and Botany, Faculty of Medicine, Pharmacy and Dental Surgery, Cheikh Anta Diop University, Dakar, Senegal.
Alioune Dior Fall
Laboratory of Pharmacognosy and Botany, Faculty of Medicine, Pharmacy and Dental Surgery, Cheikh Anta Diop University, Dakar, Senegal.
*Author to whom correspondence should be addressed.
Abstract
Lepisanthes senegalensis is a medicinal plant traditionally used for the management of several health conditions. This study evaluated the antioxidant activity and in vitro α-amylase inhibitory potential of aqueous and hydroethanolic leaf extracts of L. senegalensis. The extracts were obtained by maceration using water or a water–ethanol mixture. Antioxidant activity was investigated using the DPPH free-radical scavenging and CUPRAC reducing assays, with ascorbic acid as the reference compound. α-Amylase inhibitory activity was evaluated using acarbose as the reference inhibitor. In the DPPH assay, the aqueous and hydroethanolic extracts exhibited IC50 values of 587.00 and 553.77 µg/mL, respectively, compared with 10.77 µg/mL for ascorbic acid, indicating relatively weak radical-scavenging activity. In the CUPRAC assay, the hydroethanolic extract demonstrated stronger reducing activity than the aqueous extract, with RC50 values of 1.98 and 14.62 µg/mL, respectively; the reference ascorbic acid showed an RC50 of 1.52 µg/mL. The hydroethanolic extract also showed greater α-amylase inhibitory activity than the aqueous extract, with IC50 values of 68.78 and 463.55 µg/mL, respectively, whereas acarbose had an IC50 of 0.18 µg/mL. Overall, the hydroethanolic extract demonstrated greater activity across the assays investigated. These findings indicate antioxidant and α-amylase inhibitory potential in the leaves of L. senegalensis and support further investigation of their bioactive constituents.
Keywords: Lepisanthes senegalensis, Sapindaceae, antioxidant activity, α-amylase inhibition, antidiabetic potential, aqueous extract, hydroethanolic extract, medicinal plant