Antidiabetic Activity of Averrhoa bilimbi L. Fruit Extracts and the Identification of Active Compounds Using LC-MS and In silico Methods

Patients with diabetes mellitus require drugs that do not cause side effects in long-term use. In this era, many people use herbal medicine to treat diabetes mellitus. One species we can use as herbal medicine is Averrhoa bilimbi L., a plant whose fruit is known as belimbing wuluh and is used because it has value as an alternative medicine. This study aims to determine the antidiabetic activity of the active fraction of Averrhoa bilimbi L. fruit in vitro and in silico and to obtain the active compounds contained in the fruit fraction of starfruit (A. bilimbi L.) using Liquid Chromatography Mass Spectrometer (LC-MS). Sixteen organic compounds were identified using LC-MS analysis of the n-hexane fraction, which had the highest IC50 (7.03 μg/mL) antidiabetic activity compared to ethyl acetate (102.77 μg/mL) and n-butanol (181.65 μg/mL). In silico molecular docking, analysis was performed for all identified compounds to support the antidiabetic characteristics further. Computational predictions in this investigation revealed that two A. bilimbi fruit compounds with the greatest RT value, namely 2,3,4,5,6-pentaphenylbenzazocine (-16.0 kcal/mol) and Thraustochytroside A (-6.2 kcal/mol), exhibited higher binding affinity values than miglitol (-5.4 kcal /mol). This indicates that both compounds have promising futures as α-glucosidase inhibitor alternatives for treating diabetic disorders.