The effect of Nauclea latifolia leaf extract on alpha amylase isolated from paddy rice and Aspergillus niger
Nana Owusu
Banahene University of South China, Chin
: Forensic Toxicol Pharmacol 2015, 4:4
Abstract
Nauclea latifolia is a unique plant that has been used for the treatment of various ailments such as diabetes mellitus, malaria and hypertension. Aspergillus niger is a filamentous ascomycete fungus that is ubiguitous in the environment and has been implicated in opportunistic infections of humans. This study was carried out to determine the inhibitory effect of Nauclea latifolia leaf extract on alpha amylase isolated from Aspergillus niger and paddy rice. The extraction was done using absolute methanol. Protein concentration of the enzyme was determined using the Biuret method. The effect of substrate concentration K m , V max , effect of pH, temperature and the effect of the extract on enzyme activity were determined using starch hydrolysis method. The protein concentrations of the alpha amylase from the paddy rice and Aspergillus niger were 0.4165 mg/mL and 0.4625 mg/mL respectively (before dialysis) and that of alpha amylase from both paddy rice and Aspergillus niger were 0.0494 mg/mL and 0.40945 mg/mL respectively (after dialysis). The pH optimum was 6 for the alpha amylase from the paddy rice and 5 for Aspergillus niger . The optimum temperature for paddy rice alpha amylase was 60oC and that of the Aspergillus niger was 50o C. The results also show that there was a reduction in K m and V max when the alpha amylase from both sources was treated with the plant extract. It can therefore be concluded that Nauclea latifolia leaf extract act as uncompetitive inhibitor on alpha amylase, however, binding studies should be done to confirm.
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