Antihyperlipidermic and antidiabetic effects of Pinus koraiensis leaf oil

Metabolic disease is a complex syndrome to develop cardiometabolic risk factors, including central obesity, insulin resistance, glucose intolerance, dyslipidemia and hypertension. In the present study, anti-diabetic and hyperlipidermic activities of essential oil from leaves of Pinus koraiensis Siebold & Zucc. (EOPK) were evaluated. EOPK significantly reduced the blood glucose concentration in streptozotocin (STZ)-induced diabetic mice without weight loss, while significant weight loss was observed in STZ treated mice. Furthermore, EOPK significantly suppressed the production of α-amylase, an enzyme that catalyzes the breakdown of carbohydrate into glucose, in a dose-dependent manner and also prevented the STZ-induced cytotoxicity and nitric oxide (NO) production in HIT-T15 pancreatic β-cells. In addition, EOPK significantly inhibited the level of human cholesterol acyltransferase (hCAT)-1 and -2 and reduced low-density lipoprotein (LDL) oxidation in a dose-dependent manner with an IC₅₀ value of 40µg/ml. Also, Gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS) revealed that EOPK contains alpha-pinene (21.3%), alpha-terpineol (11.0%), δ-3-carene (10.2%), terpinolene (7.2%), camphene (6.2%) and limonene (5.2%).

Taken together, our findings suggest EOPK can be a potent pharmaceutical agent for prevention and treatment of metabolic syndrome including diabetes and hyperlipidermia.

Acknowledgement: This work was supported by a grant from the Next-Generation BioGreen 21 Program (PJ007998), Rural Development Administration, Republic of Korea.

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