Diabetes is a chronic disease characterized by elevated blood glucose level.Reducing carbohydrate absorption from the intestinal tract is an effective strategy to control post-meal blood glucose level. Inhibition of intestinal α-glucosidase, involved in digestion of carbohydrates, is known as an approach to accomplish this. On the other hand, reduction of α-glucosidase amount is expected to work in the similar manner. However, none of the previousstudy pursues this approach. A convenient assay was developed to evaluate α-glucosidase amount employing Caco-2 cells, the intestinal epithelial cell model reported to express α-glucosidase. Sixty plants were screened and two candidate plants, Calluna vulgaris and Perilla frutescens var. crispa were found to reduce α-glucosidase expression. C. vulgaris extract was subjected to activity guided isolation. Proanthocyanidin was identified as the active principle which was analyzed by thiol decomposition to reveal the components as a mixture ofcatechin, epicatechin, epigallocatechin, and A type procyanidin dimer. The proanthocyanidin suppressed about 30% of α-glucosidase amount evaluated through convenient assay, and suppressed bulk of mRNA expression level of sucrase-isomaltase (SI) at 0.125 mg/mL. Several flavan-3-ol monomers were also tested, and epicatechin gallate and epigallocatechin gallate were found to suppress α-glucosidase amount significantly.
