α-glucosidase plays an important role in the regulation of postprandial blood glucose levels, and its inhibitors, which can suppress postprandial hyperglycemia, are usually used to prevent or treat type Ⅱ diabetes.Although strong synthetic α-glucosidase inhibitors (i.e., acarbose) are available, they usually cause significantly adverse gastrointestinal events.For this reason, naturally α-glucosidase inhibitors, particularly those from the traditional Chinese medicines, have been explored as viable, low toxicity alternatives for treating type Ⅱ diabetes.More than 100 herbal medicines have been reported to show great potency in inhibiting the α-glucosidase activity, however, the therapeutic basis for most of them are still unidentified.So the major task is to develop a rapid, low-cost, and effective technique for enzyme inhibitor screening.