- 1
- a Faculty of Sciences, Unity of Research of Vegetal Ecology , University of El-Manar II , Tunis , Tunisia.
- 2
- b Faculty of Sciences, Unity of biochemistry of lipids and proteins , University of El-Manar II , Tunis , Tunisia.
- 3
- c Laboratory of Extremophile Plants , Centre of Biotechnology of Borj Cedria , Hammam-Lif , Tunisia.
- 4
- d Faculty of Sciences, Centre of Chemistry and Biochemistry , University of Lisbon , Lisboa , Portugal.
Abstract
CONTEXT:
Ruta
genus (Rutaceae) is abundantly used and described in the most ancient
systematic records of medical practice of the Mediterranean world. In
Tunisia, this genus is represented by two medicinal and aromatic shrubs:
Ruta chalepensis L. and Ruta montana L.
OBJECTIVE:
This
study investigates the antioxidant and acetylcholinesterase inhibition
(AChE) activities before and after in vitro gastrointestinal metabolism
of leaf decoction of R. chalepensis and R. montana.
MATERIALS AND METHODS:
We
study, in vitro, the effect of the gastrointestinal juices gastric
(1.75 mL) or pancreatic (2.5 mL) juices, on the biological activity by
the measurement of the antioxidant activity and AChE inhibition during
4 h of decoction extract obtained from the leaves of the two species of
Ruta.
RESULTS:
The
results showed that the ability to inhibit the AChE enzyme was similar;
being the greatest inhibitory activity exhibited by the ethanol extract
(IC50 = 12 ± 1.1 μg/mL) obtained from leaves of R. chalepensis.
CONCLUSION:
In
conclusion, we showed that there was no appreciable degradation and
that the activity was kept constant after gastric and pancreatic juice
digestion.
KEYWORDS:
Rutaceae; gastrointestinal digestion; phenolic compounds; radical scavenging DPPH; reducing power assay
