antihypertensive and antiobesity activities of selected plants from albay and sorsogon philippines

The present study evaluated the antihypertensive and antiobesity activities of twenty-three (23) selected plants from biodiverse sites in albay and sorsogon philippines. in vitro antihypertensive and antiobesity activities of the plant extracts were screened using angiotensin-1 converting enzyme (ace) and porcine pancreatic lipase (ppl) inhibition assays. the safety of the bioactive extracts was also evaluated using organ-specific toxicity assays. a total of five plants were potent ace inhibitors (>70%) at 100 ppm concentration. the ic50 values of the bioactive extracts (50.77 to 67.94 ug/ml) were comparable to the potent drug captopril (53.35 ug/ml). seven plants were active against the ppl enzyme at 100 ppm concentration. three plants exhibited strong ppl inhibitory activity (>70) with ic50 values of 46.1 to 53.45 ug/ml, less than half the value computed for orlistat (96.04 ug/ml), indicative of its strong potential as an antiobesity agent. cytotoxicity results revealed that all the bioactive plant extracts were non-toxic and safe.  the study’s findings are very promising in the search for potential herbal drugs against hypertension and obesity from natural sources in the region.