Antidiabetic Potential of Duhat (Syzygium Cumini) Bark Tea

Abstract

INTRODUCTION

For years, diabetes is one of the major prevalent lifestyle diseases that has affected the lives of Filipinos. With Type 2 Diabetes (T2D) as the most common, more than 3.2 million Filipinos were estimated to have diabetes at, more unfortunately, lower age ranges. By the end of 2030, there would be over 700 million diabetics in the Philippines. Despite the advent of technology and modern medication for diabetes, problems on treatment such cost, side effects and duration of treatment still persist. Considering the ability of duhat bark, seeds and fruit extract to lower blood pressure, this study aimed to determine the potential of local duhat bark extract in treating diabetes.

METHODS

Local variety of duhat bark pieces were gathered, cleansed, dried, powdered and packaged into tea bags. Sample duhat tea powder was subjected to phytochemical analysis to identify presence of toxins and possible anti-diabetic components at the Analytical Services Laboratory at the Institute of Chemistry, University of the Philippines Los Banos, Laguna. For characterizing the tea product, an evaluation survey was also conducted. Twenty-five sample and diverse respondents were asked to evaluate the product in terms of taste, aroma, consistency, appearance and presentation.

RESULTS

According to the phytochemical analysis, the component in focus—alkaloids—are absent. However, literature has confirmed the presence of natural anti-oxidants in herbal plants such as tannins, flavonoids and vitamins C and E. On the other hand, the survey evaluation resulted to a mean score of 3.3 on the taste at 1.31 standard deviation. In terms of aroma, the mean score was computed to be 3.08 at 1.24 standard deviation. A mean score 1.44 at 0.87 standard deviation was computed for consistency, 3.46 on appearance with standard deviation of 1; and 4.6 on presentation at 0.76 standard deviation. Thus, results reflected that the powdered duhat bark as tea is satisfactory in terms of presentation, satisfactory in terms of taste, aroma and appearance and poor in terms of consistency.

DISCUSSIONS

The results showed a negative result in terms of the presence of alkaloids. However, the product posed a satisfactory response from evaluators which emphasizes the probable acceptability of the product. This indicates the need for further reassessment. Phytochemical analysis can still be redone to identify presence of other possible anti-diabetic components.