Diabetic controlling properties of Sri Lankan green leafy vegetable “Malla”

Abstract

“Malla” (Olax zeylanica) is a popular green leafy vegetable among Sri Lankan rural population. Traditionally, the leaves of this plant are used to treat urine infections, snake bites and diabetes. As a part of our continuing research to isolate antidiabetic compounds from Sri Lankan edible plants, we report herein the isolation of an antidiabetic compound from Malla leaves. The methanolic extract of dried Malla leaves gave a brown coloured solid upon addition of 98% ethanol. This brown precipitate was further separated into several subfractions using different separation techniques. All the subfractions showed antidiabetic activity. The fraction with the highest antidiabetic activity contained a compound that belongs to the flavonoid glycoside family. Our results provide scientific evidence to support the traditional practice of using Malla to treat and control of diabetes. Further studies are being carried out on to understand the behaviour of this compound as a diabetic controlling agent.