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Updated: Oct 11, 2025

An In Ovo Model for Testing Insulin-mimetic Compounds
Published on: April 23, 2018
Natural products embedded crown ethers as potent insulin secretory agents
Nuzhat Arshad1, Abdul Hameed2, Jamshed Hashim3
1Department of Chemistry, NED University of Engineering and Technology, Karachi, Pakistan/ H.E.J. Research Institute of Chemistry, ICCBS, University of Karachi, Karachi, Pakistan.
Abstract:
Natural products embedded crown ethers were prepared by utilizing bioactive natural products including chrysin, tetrahydroisoquinoline (THIQ), and biochanin-A. The prepared crown ether scaffolds were evaluated and compared with their natural product precursors for insulin secretory activity on isolated mice islets and for their fluorescent properties. All the crown adducts were found more active as compared to their natural product precursors. Bischrysin 32-crown-10 (6d), THIQ 15-Crown-5 (6a) and chrysin 16-crown-5 (6c) showed mild, moderate and strong insulin secretory activity, respectively when compared with the standard drug tolbutamide (TB). Particularly crown derivative 6c showed strong activity (31.10 ng/islet/h) that is almost two (02) fold higher than that of standard drug TB (16.82 ng/islet/h). To the best of our knowledge crown ethers based antidiabetic study is being reported for the first time in literature through this work. Furthermore, fluorescence study showed the significant increase in absorption and emission maximum (hypsochromic effect) in crown structures when compared with their natural product precursors. Present optimistic results obtained from this study may be a guided template for developing new effective insulin secretory agents.
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