Inhibition Effects of Plant Polyphenols on Digestive Enzymes

The inhibitory effects of polyphenols ontained in plants extracts such as a rooibos tea extract(RTE) and a green tea extract(GTE) on digestive enzymes such as porcine pancreatic lipaseand a-amylase were investigated in the present work, since those polyphenols are expected to havevarious physiological activities. In addition, quercetin(Qu) and rutin(Ru) which are main constituents of RTE, and epigalocatechingallate(EGCG) and epigalocatechin(EGC) which are main constituents of GTE were evaluated to clarify the relation between the inhibitory effect and the structure of polyphenols.As results, it was found that GTE showed strong inhibitory effect for the lipase,and RTE gave the effect for amylase.The correlation between the chemical structures of plant polyphenols and inhibitory effects for the lipase and a-amylase wa ssuggested