I am doing work on some medicinal plants (mentioned above). I want to know which enzyme inhibitors are present in such plants as I have to select specific enzymes for enzyme inhibition assays. The above mentioned plants might have different enzyme inhibitors, but I want to do an enzyme inhibition assay with only one specific enzyme for comparison of antioxidant activity in such plants. Please let me know, if anybody knows the name of any enzyme inhibitor present in the medicinal plants mentioned above.
It is not clear from the question which enzyme(s) is (are) target of the expected inhibitors. At priory, I do not know inhibitors and can not guess them as the target enzyme(s) is (are) not specified. Generally, plant natural substances (e.g. terpenoids) may be enzyme inhibitors, and the question is how one have to proceed to identify one or more for a given enzyme. Hereafter, a simple procedure can be applied:
- substance(s) searched is (are) water-soluble: prepare a plant extract by shaking tissue (e.g. leaves) fragments (powder) from the plant in buffer solution.
- substance(s) is (are) solvent-soluble: follow the same extraction manner with solvent alcohols, ethers...). An extractor can be used.
Then use aliquots of the extracts in enzyme assays. In the case an appreciable inhibition (70% at least) is observed, the inhibiting extract can be studied for its inhibitory power and the inhibiting substance(s) can be purified and identified using known procedures. Generally a substance, causing an inhibition effect at a concentration of 0.1mM as maximal concentration, is considered as inhibitor.
I hope this comment is helpful.
Joseph Kreit
Dear Shital,
One good thing when we work on medicinal plants is that we have prior knowledge on it's usage. For a particular plant , check the genus also, not only species ok. If it is anti diabetic, then go for diabetic related enzymes: a- gluccosidase, anti cancer: bcl-xl and other bacsl enzymes, memory: acetylcholinesterase. LAnother thing many diseases are related to inflammation, so you may try enzymes related inflammation phenomenon- this is more general. Remember, there are usually many enzymes related to one disease. So be careful, do not make fast conclusions. So in brief:
1. Find out the disease related to plant
2. Find out enzymes related to disease and which ones are available in market and try on them. For further work choose enzyme that is inhibited the most and also the one that gives the highest percentage of repeatability/ consistency.
3. Worthwhile to check on inflammation related enzymes as most diseases are related to inflammation.
All the best.
Khalijah
Respected Khalija mam, Thank you so much for your valuable suggestion. Most of the things are clear now. I will go through a way you have guided me.
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