Screening of bioactive metabolites for pancreatic regeneration chemotherapy.

Plants and microorganisms are the treasury of bioactive metabolites including useful chemical ligands. Chemical ligands that induce beta-cell differentiation may be useful as new therapeutic agents for both type-1 and type-2 diabetes mellitus. We isolated conophylline from the leaves of Ervatamia microphylla as an agent that induce insulin production in rat pancreatic acinar carcinoma cells.