Jakarta, CNN Indonesia —
New chemical compounds on coffee it could be medicine diabetes is back in the spotlight after recent research revealed the potential of coffee as a functional food to help manage type 2 diabetes. In laboratory tests, a number of newly identified compounds from roasted coffee beans were shown to be able to inhibit carbohydrate-breaking enzymes with high effectiveness.
This research discovered three new compounds that strongly inhibit α-glucosidase, a key enzyme in the carbohydrate digestion process. This enzyme plays a direct role in determining how quickly sugar is released into the bloodstream.
In other words, inhibiting α-glucosidase may help control blood sugar spikes after meals, a mechanism that is also a major target of diabetes drugs.
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Coffee as a functional food
Coffee is no longer seen as just an uplifting drink. In recent years, coffee has entered the functional food category because of its natural compounds that have the potential to support health, ranging from antioxidants to blood glucose-lowering effects.
The challenge is that coffee has a very complex chemical composition, especially after the roasting process.
To overcome this, researchers use advanced technology such as nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) and liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry (LC-MS/MS). This method allows for faster and more precise identification of bioactive compounds, including compounds at very low levels that are difficult to detect using conventional methods.
Research led by Minghua Qiu from the Kunming Institute of Botany, Chinese Academy of Sciences, revealed previously unknown antidiabetic activities of coffee. This study was published in the journal Beverage Plant Research.
Launch Science Dailythe research team designed a three-stage process based on biological activity to trace diterpene ester compounds in roasted Coffea arabica seeds. From the initial separation to further analysis, they succeeded in isolating three new compounds, named caffaldehydes A, B, and C.
It is important to note that the new chemical compound in diabetes medicine coffee shows very strong α-glucosidase inhibition. The IC50 values for all three are even lower than acarbose, a diabetes drug commonly used as a comparison in laboratory tests.
The three caffaldehydes have similar structures, but differ in the types of fatty acids they contain. Nevertheless, all of them show significant biological activity.
This finding was strengthened by the identification of three other derivative compounds that had also not been reported before, thanks to an LC-MS/MS-based molecular network approach.
These results confirm that the integrated analysis strategy is very effective for finding important compounds in complex food ingredients such as coffee.
This discovery opens up opportunities for developing coffee-based products, both as functional foods and nutraceuticals, aimed at helping control blood sugar. In the future, the researchers plan to test the effectiveness and safety of these compounds in vivo before they can be recommended for wider use.
(tues/tues)
[Gambas:Video CNN]
