Abscisic acid (ABA) is a phyto-hormone present in different fruits and has important implications for human health, such as glucose homeostasis, increase of glucose tolerance, insulinemia attenuation, immune and anti-inflammatory functions. Fig extracts represent an important source of ABA and have therefore the potential to provide a natural balance for sugar and insulin control. The objective of this study was to determine the acute postprandial metabolic response on glycemia and insulinemia of standardized fig extracts (ABAlifeTM). Healthy subjects (n=10) consumed a glucose solution and a fig extract at two different concentrations Reference food: Glucose solution (50 g) in 250 mL of water. Test food 1: Glucose solution + 200 mg ABAlife (80 µg ABA) in 250 mL of water. Test food 2: Glucose solution + 100 mg ABAlife (40 µg ABA) in 250 mL of water. The results showed that the addition of ABAlife extracts to a glucose solution was able to reduce considerably both the glycemic index (GI) and insulinemic index (II) values. Fig Extract (100-200 mg) produced lower peak and overall glycemic and insulinemic responses, between 30-120 minutes, compared with reference food of glucose. The supplementation of Fig Extract (200 mg) to a glucose solution was able to produce considerable reductions of the GI and II values (25%, p<0.001 and 24%, p<0.05, respectively). Moreover, a dose response reduction of II was observed with both ABAlife extracts. Therefore, small amounts of ABA from ABAlife extracts could be proposed as an interesting strategy to reduce postprandial glucose and insulin responses and ABA potential to manage glucose metabolism disorders should be investigated in further chronic clinical trials.
A. Zangara: Employee; Self; Euromed.
