Chemical profiling of zanthoxylum acanthopodium essential oil and its antidiabetic activity

Abstract

Inflammation plays an important role in the development of type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM), including obesity-related insulin resistance. Biomarkers of inflammation, such as C-reactive protein (CRP), tumor necrosis factor alpha (TNF-α), interleukin-6, and monocyte chemoattractant protein-1 (MCP-1) are present at increased concentrations in insulin resistant and obese individuals. In this study, we investigated the antidiabetic activity of Zanthoxylum acanthopodium essential oil (ZAEO) on attenuation of proteins related to diabetes in hepatocytes in vitro. ZAEO was extracted from Z. acanthopodium fruits using hexane and identified by using pyrolysis gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (py-GC/MS). ZAEO was tested for its cytotoxicity against human Chang liver cells as an in vitro cultured hepatocytes model. Effect of ZAEO (1-50 μg/mL) on protein expression related to T2DM, including CRP, TNF-α, and MCP-1 was quantified by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) assay. Chromatogram profile demonstrated that ZAEO mainly consisted of carveol (~47.7%). MTT profile showed that safest dose of ZAEO against hepatocytes was reached up to 10 μg/mL. ELISA data showed that among three proteins, ZAEO exerted significant inhibitory effect against MCP-1 protein expression secreted by hepatocytes. At lowest dose (1 μg/mL), ZAEO attenuated MCP-1 expression up to 30%, respectively. These findings suggest that ZAEO may down-regulate inflammation related to T2DM through inhibiting MCP-1 expression that leads to the increase of insulin-stimulated glucose uptake.