A Comparative Analysis of Phytoconstituents, Cytotoxicity and Antidiabetic Activity of Three Regional Piper betle Varieties: First Report from Bangladesh

Aim: Piper betle is one of the significant species of Piperaceae family that exhibit remarkable medicinal potentials including anticancer and antidiabetic activity. The present study aimed to conduct a comparative study on different regional betel leaves focusing on identification of active phytochemicals and evaluating cytotoxic and antidiabetic activity of leaf extracts.

Methodology: The P. betle plant leaves of Moheshkhali, Shaplapur, and Rajshahi regions were included in the study. Active phytochemicals in leaves of different varieties were screened. In addition, brine shrimp lethality assay and α-glucosidase inhibitory assay were conducted for investigating cytotoxicity and antidiabetic activity respectively of the leaf extracts.

Results: We found alkaloid, saponin, tannin, glycoside, phenol, steroid, terpenoid, and flavonoid except anthocyanin in phytochemical screening of three P. betle varieties. In cytotoxicity assay, the dichloromethane extract of Rajshahi variety showed the highest cytotoxic effect (100% mortality) with LC50 at 2.91 µg/mL in comparison with Moheshkhali (LC50 at 30.47 µg/mL) and Shahplapur variety (LC50 at 79.98 µg/mL). In antidiabetic assay, the highest (100%) α-glucosidase inhibition activity was observed by the n-hexane extract of Rajshahi variety with IC50 at 0.001 µg/mL followed by 0.004 µg/mL and 0.015 µg/mL of Shaplapur and Moheshkhai variety respectively.

Conclusion: Collectively, our study showed the possible presence of a number of active phytochemical constituents among the three varieties of P. betle leaf extracts as well as potent ability of different leaf extracts in cytotoxicity and antidiabetic activity. We hope the P. betle leaf extracts of Moheshkhali variety can play significant role as potential anti-cancer or anti-tumor and anti-diabetic drugs as well.