Journal of Cell and Molecular Biology 3 : 39-44, 2004. Haliç University, Printed in Turkey. 39 A k i n e t i c m o d e l f o r i n - v i t r o i n t e s t i n a l u p t a k e o f L - t y r o s i n e a n d D ( + ) - g l u c o s e a c r o s s r a t e v e r t e d g u t s a c s i n t h e p r e s e n c e o f M o m o r d i c a c h a r a n t i a , a m e d i c i n a l p l a n t u s e d i n t r a d i t i o n a l m e d i c i n e a g a i n s t d i a b e t e s m e l l i t u s Mohamad Fawzi Mahomoodally 1 , Ameenah-Gurib Fakim 2 , Anwar Hussein Subratty 1 * 1 Department of Health and Medical Sciences, 2 Department of Chemistry, Faculty of Science, University of Mauritius, Reduit, Mauritius (*author for correspondence) Received 10 December 2003; Accepted 19 January 2004 A b s t r a c t Momordica charantia (MC) is a traditional antidiabetic medicinal plant used in many parts of the world, including Mauritius. An everted rat gut sac technique was used to investigate the effect of MC on kinetic parameters of D (+)- glucose and L-tyrosine. Everted guts were mounted in a gut sac bath and aqueous extract of MC fruit was added to the mucosal medium (3.62 mg/mL) at varying substrate concentrations. Michaelis-Menten constant (K m ) and maximal velocity (V max ) were calculated in the presence and absence of MC fruit extract. It was observed that MC significantly reduced V max of D-(+)- glucose uptake by 0.09 mM hr -1 , whereas K m remained unaltered suggested a non-competitive type of inhibition was present. L-Tyrosine uptake in the presence of MC fruit extract did not fit to a relatively simple kinetic model. K e y w o r d s : Momordica charantia, kinetics, diabetes mellitus, traditional medicine D i a b e t e s m e l l i t u s ’ a k a r fl › k u l l a n › l a n g e l e n e k s e l t › b b i b i t k i M o m o r d i c a c h a r a n t i a v a r l › ¤ › n d a t e r s y ü z e d i l m i fl s › ç a n b a ¤ › r s a ¤ › n d a n L - t i r o z i n v e D ( + ) - g l u k o z g e ç i fl i i ç i n i n v i t r o k i n e t i k m o d e l Ö z e t Momordica charantia, (MC) Mauritus’da dahil dünyan›n birçok yerinde geleneksel antidiyabetik t›bbi ilaç olarak kullan›lmaktad›r. Ters yüz edilmifl ba¤›rsak tekni¤i MC nin D(+)-glukoz ve L-tirozinin kinetik parametrelerine olan etkilerini araflt›rmak için kullan›ld›. Ters yüz edilmifl ba¤›rsaklar ba¤›rsak banyosuna kondu ve de¤iflik konsanrasyonda substrat içeren mukoza medyumuna MC meyvesinin sulu ekstresi eklendi (3.62mg/mL). Michaelis- Menten sabit (K m ) ve maksimum h›z (V max ) MC meyve ekstresinin mevcudiyetinde ve yoklu¤unda hesap edildi. MC nin kayda de¤er bir flekilde D(+)-glukoz al›n›fl›n›n V max ’›n› azaltt›¤› (0.09 mM hr -1 ), buna karfl›n K m ’nin de¤iflmedi¤i ve bunun da rekabet etmeyen bir inhibisyon tipini ortaya koydu¤u belirlendi. MC meyve ekstresi varl›¤›nda L-tirozin al›n›fl› nisbeten basit olan kinetik modele uygunluk göstermedi. A n a h t a r s ö z c ü k l e r : Momordica charantia, kinetik, diyabet, geleneksel t›p