Research On The Hypoglycemic Activity Of The Corn Silk Extracts

This paper was supported by a grant from Science and Technology Departmentof Jilin Province key Projects in Agriculture (No.20080224).As an effective kind of medicinal herbs, corn silk are widely used and has agreat prospects for the development and utilization. Corn contains a variety of activechemical ingredients as our traditional Chinese medicine, including polysaccharides,sterols, saponins, flavonoids, alkaloids, minerals and so on. Therefore, to explore therole of corn extracts in blood glucose-lowering is of great significance, whichprovides the on the development and utilization of corn with new research directions.Main contents are as follows:1. Corn silk were selected as raw material to extract the corn flavonoids usingheat reflux extraction, and aluminum chloride colorimetric method was optimized inthe determination of the flavonoids content in the corn silk extracts. Corn silk extractcontents16.8mg/g flavonoids.2. The prepared corn silk extracts’ effects on iodine complex formation anddigestion with soluble starch, amylase and amylopectin content were studiedrespectively. Meanwhile the Corn silk extracts’ effects on α amylase and αglucosidase inhibitory simultaneous were determined. The results showed that, cornsilk extracts can effectively prevent soluble starch, amylase and amylopectin frombeing formatted with iodine complexes, as well as inhibit the digestive action.Experiment results showed that corn silk extracts had a slight inhibition effect for αamylase and α glucosidase, Maximum inhibition rates are22.3%and21.1%。3. To further study the role of corn silk extracts in hypoglycemic activity,streptozotocin was used to induce diabetic model mice. Fed with different concentrations of corn silk extracts for28days, the mice were measured and recordedweekly with their blood glucose concentrations, food intake, water intake, and bodyweight. The determination of serum total cholesterol (TC), triglyceride (TG),malondialdehyde (MDA), superoxide dismutase (SOD), low-density lipoproteincholesterol (LDL-C), high density lipoprotein cholesterol (HDL-C) and glycogencontent were conducted after the last administration. The results showed that corn silkextracts can effectively improve diabetes " a little more than three disease" symptomsfor the experimental mice. Serum TG, TC, LDL-C, MDA content were improved thanthe control group model, which indicated that a increasing dose of corn silk extractsmay lead to a enhancement the oxidative damage repair of mouse models. Serumlevels of HDL-C compared with the model group also increased.In this paper, the test method measurement of corn silk extracts was optimizedfor the determination of flavonoids. Corn silk extracts’ effects on digestion of starch,amylase, as well as the inhibition effects on amylase and glucosidase were determined.The test and evaluation of Corn silk extracts effects in several pHysiologicalindicators of diabetic model mice provide a basis for future development for the cornsilk research.