Special Edition: Blood Sugar Management
Salacia oblonga
Ayruvedia is offering some interesting ingredients for nutraceuticals, including extracts from the root of the vine, which has a long-standing traditional use in traditional Indian medicine.
The literature offers many examples of the safety and efficacy of the ingredient in animals. Human data is more limited, however, but nonetheless ‘promising’.
A 2005 study by researchers at the Ohio State University with 43 healthy subjects indicated that the extract may reduce post-prandial glucose levels by 25-30%, compared to a control, via its ability to slow the digestion of carbohydrates by inhibiting the alpha-glucosidase enzyme.
“The approximately 25% decrease in postprandial glycemia, coupled with the increase in breath hydrogen (an indicator of carbohydrate maldigestion) and the increased flatulence symptoms observed in the present study, supports the α-glucosidase inhibitory activity of S. oblonga extract,” they wrote in Nutrition (Collene et al. Vol. 21, pp. 848-854).
“Salacia oblonga extract is a promising nutraceutical ingredient that decreased glycemia in this study,”