Introduction: Obesity and diabetes mellitus are prevalent life-threatening metabolic disorders. Herbal products
may provide potential treatments, but low-cost, quick methods to facilitate the discovery of active components
are required. A simple cost-effective method used to assess extracts of Coleus schinzii for anti-obesity and antidiabetic
effects is suggested. This approach provides a useful technique for researchers conducting preliminary in
vitro studies for any plant extract.
Methods: Exhaustive extraction with solvents with various levels of polarity was used to extract all the phytochemicals
from C. schinzii. Phytochemical screening tests were conducted utilizing standard analytical methods.
A colorimetric spectrophotometer assay was utilized to demonstrate the anti-obesity (anti-lipase) and antidiabetic
(anti-α-amylase and anti-α-glucosidase) activities, using 2,4-dinitrophenyl butyrate, 3, 5-dinitro salicylic
acid, and p-nitrophenol-a-D-glucopyranoside (PNPG), respectively. For validation, all experimental work was
conducted in triplicate, and results were considered significant when p values were less than 0.05.
Results: Phytochemical screening tests showed that methanolic extract was enriched with phenols, tannins, and
flavonoids. Compared with the positive controls, results revealed that C. schinzii methanol extract has potential
in-vitro anti-lipase, anti-α-amylase, and anti-α-glucosidase effects compared with the positive controls with IC50
doses of 64.07±0.57, 16.27±0.76 and 40.51±0.63 μg/ml, respectively.
Conclusion: C. schinzii, a traditional herbal medicine has not been previously screened for its lipase, α-amylase,
and α-glucosidase inhibitory activities. This was a useful preliminary technique to investigate this traditional
medicinal plant and is a method that can be more widely utilized in the laboratory for other medicinal plants. As
for any herbal product, pharmacological effects should be validated in-vivo and clinically.

Title

European Journal of Integrative Medicine

Publisher

Elsevier

Publisher Country

Netherlands

Indexing

Thomson Reuters

Impact Factor

1.3

Publication Type

Both (Printed and Online)

Volume

47

Year

2021

Pages

101377