Pentacyclic triterpenoids including the oleanane, ursane and lupane groups are widely distributed in many medicinal plants, such as Glycyrrhiza species, Gymnema species, Centella asiatica, Camellia sinensis, Crataegus species and Olea europaea, which are commonly used in traditional medicine for the treatment of diabetes and diabetic complications. A large number of bioactive pentacyclic triterpenoids, such as oleanolic acid, glycyrrhizin, glycyrrhetinic acid, ursolic acid, betulin, betulinic acid and lupeol have shown multiple biological activities with apparent effects on glucose absorption, glucose uptake, insulin secretion, diabetic vascular dysfunction, retinopathy and nephropathy. The versatility of the pentacyclic triterpenes provides a promising approach for diabetes management.

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The results indicate that harvesting C. asiatica in summer returns the highest yield of the target triterpenoids, kaempferol and chlorogenic acid.

The purpose of this review is to summarize the available antidiabetic medicinal plants in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia with its phytoconstituents and toxicological findings supporting by the latest literature. Required data about medicinal plants having antidiabetic activities and growing in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia were searched/collected from the online databases including Wiley, Google, PubMed, Google Scholar, ScienceDirect, and Scopus. Keywords used in search are in vivo antidiabetic activities, flora of Saudi Arabia, active ingredients, toxicological evaluations, and medicinal plants. A total of 50 plant species belonging to 27 families were found in the flora of Saudi Arabia. Dominant family was found Lamiaceae with 5 species (highest) followed by Moraceae with 4 species. β-Amyrin, β-sitosterol, stigmasterol, oleanolic acid, ursolic acid, rutin, chlorogenic acid, quercetin, and kaempferol are the very common bioactive constituents of these selected plant species. This paper has presented a list of antidiabetic plants used in the treatment of diabetes mellitus. Bioactive antidiabetic phytoconstituents which showed that these plants have hypoglycemic effects and highly recommended for further pharmacological purposes and to isolate/identify antidiabetes mellitus (anti-DM) active agents also need to investigate the side effects of active ingredients.

Cystic echinococcosis is a serious zoonotic disease caused by Echinococcus granulosus species complex. The current study is the first attempt to determine the level of infection in domestic livestock and to explore the CE-related knowledge and awareness among livestock farmers in different districts of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, province of Pakistan. A total of 1297 animals were examined for hydatid cysts including 538 cows, 428 buffaloes, 208 sheep, and 123 goats, at different slaughter houses in different districts of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa in 2 years from September 2015 to September 2017. For epidemiological investigations, prevalence in association with various factors (climate, age, and gender), organ specificity, types of cysts (fertile, sterile, or calcified), and viability of cysts parameters was recorded. Basing on the results obtained, areas with high prevalence were selected for further follow-ups and administration of questionnaires to the farmers and dog owners, to provide baseline data about this parasitic disease and to identify potential areas of emergence with correspondence animal and of public health significance. The finding of this study revealed the presence of CE in livestock of KP, Pakistan. The prevalence of hydatid cysts was the highest in buffaloes (15.88%) followed by cows (15.79%), sheep (15.38%), and goats (3.25%). Our investigation revealed close relationship between prevalence and animal age and gender in different months of the year. These findings also showed the highest prevalence of hydatid cysts in liver (63.49%), followed by lungs (23.80%) and mesentery (2.64%). Fertile and viable cysts were observed in all animal species except goats. The highest percentage of fertile and viable cysts was reported from the liver and lungs of sheep. For evaluation of risk factors, a total of 384 respondents were investigated. The results of current study revealed that 97.9% of farmers are not familiar with CE and transmission of this infection from dogs to human and livestock. The present study shows that CE will continue to be of medical and veterinary importance in Pakistan.