Screening culinary herbs for antioxidant and α‐glucosidase inhibitory activities

Summary Twelve commonly consumed culinary herbs were assessed for their potential effect in mitigating oxidative stress and postprandial hyperglycaemia: R iver M int, Vietnamese M int, Fish M int, S pearmint, S weet B asil, T hai B asil, C oriander, L emon V erbena, V ietnamese P erilla, R ice Patty, S awtooth and R osemary. The radical scavenging and reducing antioxidant activity of the herbs were quite variable ranging from 31–652 mg T rolox E quivalent to 35–512 mg F errous Equivalent per gram dried leaves, respectively. The herbs were largely inactive against pancreatic α‐amylase, but showed strong inhibitions against yeast α‐glucosidase at 100 μg G allic A cid E quivalent ( GAE ) per millilitre. V ietnamese M int is the most potent herbs with the concentration required for 50% inhibition of activity of 6.9 μg Dried Leaves per millilitre. In addition, V ietnamese M int was the only herb that produced significant inhibition of rat intestinal α‐glucosidases, reducing activity to 29.6% at 100 μg GAE mL −1 compared with control.