Anti-Inflammatory, Antidiabetic Properties and In Silico Modeling of Cucurbitane-Type Triterpene Glycosides from Fruits of an Indian Cultivar of L.

Diabetes mellitus is a chronic disease and one of the fastest-growing health challenges of the last decades. Studies have shown that chronic low-grade inflammation and activation of the innate immune system are intimately involved in type 2 diabetes pathogenesis. L. fruits are used in traditional medicine to manage diabetes. Herein, we report the purification of a new 23--β-d-allopyranosyl-5β,19-epoxycucurbitane-6,24-diene triterpene (charantoside XV, ) along with 25ξ-isopropenylchole-5(6)-ene-3--β-d-glucopyranoside (), karaviloside VI (), karaviloside VIII (), momordicoside L (), momordicoside A () and kuguaglycoside C () from an Indian cultivar of . At 50 µM compounds, - differentially affected the expression of pro-inflammatory markers , , and , and mitochondrial marker . Compounds tested for the inhibition of α-amylase and α-glucosidase enzymes at 0.87 mM and 1.33 mM, respectively. Compounds showed similar α-amylase inhibitory activity than acarbose (0.13 mM) of control (68.0-76.6%). Karaviloside VIII (56.5%) was the most active compound in the α-glucosidase assay, followed by karaviloside VI (40.3%), while momordicoside L (23.7%), A (33.5%), and charantoside XV (23.9%) were the least active compounds. To better understand the mode of binding of cucurbitane-triterpenes to these enzymes, in silico docking of the isolated compounds was evaluated with α-amylase and α-glucosidase.