Antidiabetic Activity of Standardized Extracts of Balanites aegyptiaca Fruits using Cell-based Bioassays

The antidiabetic activities of different extracts and fractions of Balanites aegyptiaca were tested in cultured C2C12 skeletal muscle cells and 3T3-L1 adipocytes. An 18-h treatment with 200 µg/mL of the sugars fraction (A1) showed the highest activity as it increased basal glucose uptake by 52% in muscle cells; which is twice the activity of 100 nM insulin [insulin equivalent (IE) = 2.0 ± 0.07]. The dichloromethane (E) and ethyl acetate (F) successive extracts exerted 37 and 41% increase in the glucose uptake, respectively. Only E and F accelerated the triglyceride accumulation in pre-adipocytes undergoing differentiation, comparably with 10 µM rosiglitazone [rosiglitazone equivalent (RE) was 1.6 ± 0.3 and 0.7 ± 0.1, respectively). Gas chromatography (GC) analysis of A1 revealed the presence of xylose, rhamnose, sorbitol, fructose, galactose and glucose. The active extracts E and F were standardized by high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) to contain 0.031 and 0.239% of rutin, 0.007 and 0.004% of isorhamnetin, respectively.