Isolation of hypoglycemic phytoconstituent from Swietenia macrophylla seeds.

The present study was undertaken to isolate a novel antidiabetic molecule from Swietenia macrophylla seeds. The hydroalcohol extract of Swietenia macrophylla seeds was subjected for bioassay guided isolation employing glucose utilization assay by the isolated rat hemi-diaphragm method in vitro. One tetranortriterpenoid, swietenine, isolated from the chloroform fraction exhibited significant (p<0.01) activity and the effect was comparable to that of human insulin (p<0.01). Copyright (c) 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.