In the current study, we investigated the inhibitory activity of pyridoxine, pyridoxal, and pyridoxamine, against various digestive enzymes such as α-glucosidases, sucrase, maltase, and glucoamylase. Inhibition of these enzymes involved in the absorption of disaccharide can improve post-prandial hyperglycemia due to a carbohydrate-based diet. Pyridoxal (4.14 mg/mL of IC₅₀) had the highest rat intestinal α-glucosidase inhibitory activity, followed by pyridoxamine and pyridoxine (4.85 and 5.02 mg/mL of IC₅₀, respectively). Pyridoxal demonstrated superior inhibition against maltase (0.38 mg/mL IC₅₀) and glucoamylase (0.27 mg/mLIC₅₀). In addition, pyridoxal showed significant higher α-amylase inhibitory activity (10.87 mg/mL of IC₅₀) than that of pyridoxine (23.18 mg/mL of IC₅₀). This indicates that pyridoxal can also inhibit starch hydrolyzing by pancreatic α-amylase in small intestine. Based on these in vitro results, the deeper evaluation of the anti-hyperglycemic potential of pyridoxine and its derivatives using Sprague-Dawley (SD) rat models, was initiated. The post-prandial blood glucose levels were tested two hours after sucrose/starch administration, with and without pyridoxine and its derivatives. In the animal trial, pyridoxal (p < 0.05) had a significantly reduction to the postprandial glucose levels, when compared to the control. The maximum blood glucose levels (Cmax) of pyridoxal administration group were decreased by about 18% (from 199.52 ± 22.93 to 164.10 ± 10.27, p < 0.05) and 19% (from 216.92 ± 12.46 to 175.36 ± 10.84, p < 0.05) in sucrose and starch loading tests, respectively, when compared to the control in pharmacodynamics study. The pyridoxal administration significantly decreased the minimum, maximum, and mean level of post-prandial blood glucose at 0.5 h after meals. These results indicate that water-soluble vitamin pyridoxine and its derivatives can decrease blood glucose level via the inhibition of carbohydrate-hydrolyzing and absorption-linked enzymes. Therefore, pyridoxal may have the potential to be used as a food ingredient for the prevention of prediabetes progression to type 2 diabetes.

Hyuk Hwa Kim

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