The purpose of this paper is to determine the α‐amylase and α‐glucosidase inhibitory properties of grains of some red and white varieties of rice from India.
Methanolic extracts of different rice varieties were analyzed for their α‐amylase and α‐glucosidase inhibitory properties. Total phenol and total anthocyanin contents were measured.
The white varieties of rice grains showed weak α‐glucosidase inhibitory activity and no α‐amylase inhibitory activity. The red varieties of rice grains showed good α‐glucosidase and α‐amylase inhibitory activities. The activities in these red varieties of rice, as determined by the IC50 values, were found to be correlated to total anthocyanin content. α‐glucosidase inhibitory activity of cyanidin‐3‐glucoside, the anthocyanin reported from rice grains was studied. But the IC50 values of different red varieties of rice were much less than that of cyanidin‐3‐glucoside indicating higher activity of red rice grain extracts than the purified pigment. This might be due to synergistic activity with other components present in rice extract.
The report shows hypoglycaemic potential of red varieties of rice grains.
