Evaluation of the Antinutrient Composition of the Component Herbs of a Traditional Antidiabetic Formulation

Abstract

Compound or substances which act to reduce nutrient intake digestion, absorption and utilization and may produce other adverse effect are referred to as anti-nutrient factors. The anti-nutrients in six plants herb; Mormodica charantia, Acanthus montanus, Asystasia gangetica, Hibiscus rosa-sinensis, Vernonia amygdalina, and Emilia coccinea were studied using standard methods. Anti-nutrients studied include: oxalate, phytate, tannins and trypsin inhibitors. The result showed that Hibiscus rosa-sinensis, has the highest oxalate content (23.20mg/100g), followed by Mormodica charantia (21.20mg/100g) and Acanthus montanus (18.80mg/100g). Asystasia gangetica, Vernonia amygdalina, and Emilia coccinea showed oxalate contents of 13.84mg/100g, 16.80mg/100g, and 12.80mg/100g respectively. Phytate contents of 11.69mg/100g, 67.52mg/100g, 41.15mg/100g, 52.53mg/100g, 39.45mg/100g and 22.15mg/100g were obtained for Mormodica charantia, Acanthus montanus, Asystasia gangetica, Hibiscus rosa-sinensis, Vernonia amygdalina, and Emilia coccinea respectively. The determination of tannins revealed that Asystasia gangetica, Mormodica charantia and Hibiscus rosa-sinensis have higher concentrations of tannins (1.48, 1.31 and 1.26mg/100g respectively) than Acanthus montanus, Vernonia amygdalina, and Emilia coccinea (0.77, 0.66 and 0.99mg/100g respectively). The herbs are rich sources of trypsin inhibitors as they contained 90mg/100ml, 84mg/100ml, 70mg/100ml, 69mg/100ml, 71mg/100ml, and 59mg/100ml of trypsin inhibitors in Mormodica charantia, Acanthus montanus, Asystasia gangetica, Hibiscus rosa-sinensis, Vernonia amygdalina, and Emilia coccinea respectively.