Hibiscus sabdariffa Linn. WATER-ETHANOL EXTRACT NANOEMULSION FOR RETARDING GLUCOSE ABSORPTION

Diabetes is the one of the prevalent non-communicable diseases, affecting millions across the globe. Conversely, conventional therapy involving blood glucose-lowering medications and insulin injections may lead to drug resistance or side effects because of the one-drug mechanism. Hibiscus sabdariffa Linn. (HSL) has the potential to maintain blood glucose levels and can be used along with the conventional treatment as an alternative approach. The phenolic components of HSL extract are very sensitive to environmental factors during processing and storage, resulting in low bioavailability and activity. Formulating the extract into a nanoemulsion extract is one technique to solve this problem. The best HSL water-in-oil nanoemulsion was achieved using 7% polyglycerol polyricinoleate (PGPR) surfactant, medium chain-length triglyceride (MCT): corn oil (1:1) which was subjected to different stability testing such as mean droplet size, polydispersity index, zeta potential, coalescent and Ostwald ripening. The in-vitro glucose release study using a dialysis tube revealed that HSL decreased the glucose diffusion to the outside solution (NaCl: 0.15M, 10 mL) by 44.12% after 24 hours. In short, the formulated HSL successfully resulted in the retarding of the release of glucose, conveying its potential use as a natural supplement for diabetic treatments.