Analysis of inulin and fructans in Taraxacum officinale L. roots as the main inulin-containing component of antidiabetic herbal mixture

Herbs and their combinations due to the wide range of biologically active substances can influence on various links of the pathogenetic mechanism of development of diabetes mellitus and its complications. One of such combinations is an antidiabetic herbal mixture with established hypoglycemic, hypolipidemic, antioxidant, hepatoprotective, pancreatoprotective activity in previous pharmacological study in vivo that including an inulin-containing component – Taraxacum officinale L. roots. Thus, the aim of this study was to determine the quantitative content of inulin and fructans in Taraxacum officinale L. Quantity content of inulin was determined by the difference between fructose as a product of enzymatic hydrolysis and D -fructose, a constituent of sucrose and free D -fructose, taking into account the empirical factor for the conversion of D -fructose from inulin. Carbohydrates used in the calculation of inulin were separated by gas chromatography-mass spectrometry after conversion into volatile derivatives as aldononitrile acetate. According to the results, Taraxacum officinale L. roots contain 436.29 mg/g of inulin. Total content of fructans was determined by spectrophotometric analysis as a product of acid hydrolysis of 5-(hydroxymethyl)furfural. The results show that Taraxacum officinale L. roots contain 39.49% of fructans. The obtained results are evidence that this plant component should be included in the herbal antidiabetic mixture, because due to the presence of fructans and inulin causes hypoglycemic, hypolipidemic and detoxification activity.