Peperomia pellucida Herbal Tea: An Initial Assessment of Cardiovascular and Metabolic Parameters, with in Silico Insights

Abstract

Medicinal plant-derived herbal teas are gaining recognition for their health-promoting properties. This preliminary study aimed to investigate the potential of Peperomia pellucida herbal tea to modulate cardiovascular and metabolic risk factors. The effects of twice-daily consumption of the tea for one week on systolic blood pressure, fasting blood sugar, uric acid, and cholesterol levels in three female patients (ages 37-61) with pre-existing elevated levels were measured. In addition, in silico methods, including molecular docking against the insulin receptor tyrosine kinase (1IR3) and ADMET (absorption, distribution, metabolism, excretion, and toxicity) analysis were used to assess the antidiabetic potential of twenty P. pellucida metabolites. The clinical observations showed reductions in systolic blood pressure (20-50 mmHg), fasting blood sugar (21-51 mg/dL), cholesterol (18-52 mg/dL), and uric acid (0.1-1.5 mg/dL). Molecular docking revealed strong binding affinities (average-8.9 kcal/mol) of most metabolites to 1IR3. Based on ADMET profiles, four compounds including brachystamide B (1), isoschaftoside (5), loliodide (8), and luteolin (9) showed comparable or superior predicted drug-like properties compared to known antidiabetic drugs like metformin. Isovitexin (8) displayed the most promising combination of binding affinity and ADMET characteristics. Interestingly, isovitexin, along with vitexin, has been reported to play an important role in targeting pathophysiological and metabolic pathways of diabetes mellitus. While suggestive of potential antidiabetic, antihypertensive, anticholesterolemic, and uric acid-lowering effects of P. pellucida, these findings must be considered preliminary due to the study's methodological limitations, including a small sample size, warranting more rigorous investigation to validate these results.