BATWAN AND DIABETIS

Batuan/Batwan: Visayas sour fruit may prevent diabetes/Paul M. Icamina

DOST REGION VI·THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 7, 2017

Leann Patrice A. Ganzon (left) and Anne Nicole Occeña, Grade 10 in a Special Science Class at the Iloilo National High School, plan to study medicine. (Photo by Paul M. Icamina)

ILOILO CITY — Batuan, long a favorite souring fruit in the Visayas, may be useful in preventing diabetes.

Leann Patrice A. Ganzon, 16, and Anne Nicole Occeña, 15, both in Grade 10 in a Special Science Class at the Iloilo National High School, looked at the therapeutic potential of batuan (Garcinia binucao)in preventing type 2 diabetes mellitus.

While it is a long way yet on the pharmaceutical road, it may be the start of something big. Type 2 diabetes mellitus is a long-term disorder that is characterized by high blood sugar levels. In 2013, about 5.4 percent of Filipinos had type 2 diabetes, according to the 8th National Nutrition Survey of the Food and Nutrition Research Institute (FNRI).

The future doctors — Ganzon plans to take up law or medicine in college while Occeña will study medicine — even went as far as to spend a month and a half in the summer of 2016 at FNRI to tweak their analyses of batuan characteristics.

Their research — “Garcinia binucao Fruit and Leaf: Potent Phytochemicals-Mediated Antioxidant, α-Amylase and α-Glucosidase Enzyme Inhibitions” — won First Prize in the Regional Inventions Contest and Exhibits in Western Visayas organized by the Technology Application and Promotion Institute, Department of Science and Technology.

“We thought of batuan as a means in preventing type 2 diabetes when my great-grandmother had part of both her legs amputated due to the disease,” said Ganzon, the research team leader. It so happened that Occeña’s family had a batuan tree in their backyard.

The study concludes that batuan leaf and fruit are potential preventive remedies in lowering postprandial hyperglycemia, a common diabetes complication that happens after eating.

Ganzon and Occeña concludes that batuan inhibits enzymes such as α-amylase and α-glucosidase that break down carbohydrates.

The study sought to determine the phytochemical content or biologically active compounds of batuan. At the same time, the researchers looked at how the fruit’s antioxidant properties counter the production of free radicals that damage cells.

The students also determined the α-amylase inhibition property of batuan. Alpha-amylase is the protein enzyme that breaks down polysaccharides such as starch and glycogen, yielding glucose and maltose. It is the major form of amylase found in humans and other mammals.

They studied the fruit’s α-glucosidase or alpha-glucosidase inhibition similar to those found in anti-diabetic drugs used for diabetes mellitus type 2.

Alpha-glucosidase speed up the digestion of carbohydrates (such as starch and table sugar) that are normally converted into simple sugars absorbed by the intestine. This way, alpha-glucosidase inhibitors reduce the effects of carbohydrates on blood sugar.

Ganzon and Occeña have produced batuan powder and put them in sachets to make ready-to-use tea. There is just a hint of sourness; batuan tea tastes good when honey (or sugar) is added.

The way it’s going, batuan may join the long list of herbal remedies made into tea — with a twist. Unlike other herbal medicines that rely mainly on testimonials, Ganzon and Occeña may have come up with the scientific evidence to back up their claim.

Batuan (pronounced bat-wan) is an evergreen tree whose fruit is common in Southeast Asia, abundant especially in the low altitude forests of the Philippines and Vietnam. In the Visayas, it is used as a souring agent in many local food recipes such as fish and pork sinigang and paksiw.

Because it is not cultivated, batuan fruits are collected from the wild. Its development into a pharmaceutical may reverse what it seen to be declining stocks as forests are logged for shifting cultivation.