Albizzia lebbeck (Leguminosae) is a deciduous tree with medicinal uses. Barks and seeds are astringent, and are given in piles Abstract Diabetes mellitus is a chronic metabolic disorder characterized by high blood glucose level caused due to deficiency of insulin secretion or insulin action. It includes a group of metabolic diseases characterized by hyperglycemia, in which blood sugar levels are elevated either because the pancreas do not produce enough insulin or cells do not respond to the

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... duced insulin. Thus, a therapeutic approach to treat diabetes is to decrease postprandial hyperglycemia in patients with type II diabetes. It can be achieved by the inhibition of carbohydrate hydrolyzing enzymes like alpha amylase and alpha glucosidase. Such inhibitors which find application in the clinical practice for management of diabetes are known to be associated with various gastrointestinal side effects. Therefore, it is the need of time to identify and explore the amylase inhibitors from natural sources having fewer side effects. In the present study, aqueous extracts of selected plants namely Albizzia lebbeck, Berberis aristata, Mucuna pruriens, Myristica fragrans, Catharanthus roseus, and Caesalpinia bonducella which are used in the Ayurvedic traditional system of medicine to treat diabetes were tested for their inhibitory effect on α-amylase. The results revealed that the extract of A. lebbeck at a concentration of 1000µg/ml exhibited an inhibition of 70.91%, whereas the extracts of B. aristata and M. pruriens showed an inhibition of 65.24% and 62.96 % respectively at a similar concentration. The extracts of C. roseus, M. fragrans and C. bonducella exhibited a relatively less inhibitory response for the α-amylase enzyme. The results of the work thus clearly indicate the potential of the studied extracts to manage hyperglycemia. Conclusion The results of the present study indicate that the selected plant extracts exhibited maximum alpha amylase inhibitory activity and thus, will prove to be beneficial to reduce the rate of digestion and absorption of carbohydrates and thereby contribute for effective management of diabetes by decreasing the post-prandial hyperglycemia. The plants may essentially contain herbal bioactive compounds inhibiting enzyme activity and further structural elucidation and characterization methodologies have to be carried out in order to identify the bioactive constituents.