Acarbose

An alpha-glucosidase inhibitor drug that slows the digestion of starch and sucrose, blunting the blood-sugar spike after meals in type 2 diabetes. It is a natural product at heart, first isolated from fermentation broths of Actinoplanes bacteria, and it works not by changing insulin but by delaying carbohydrate breakdown in the gut. For food scientists it is a neat bridge between pharmacy and food enzymology: it targets exactly the enzymes — maltase, sucrase, glucoamylase — that digest everyday carbohydrate foods, making it a living illustration of how starch chemistry translates into glycaemic response.