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Diabetes mellitus (DM) is a serious metabolic disorder which has reached epidemic proportions all over the world. Despite tremendous developments in medicinal chemistry, traditional medicine is still commonly used for the prevention and treatment of DM. Traditional herbal medicines have been playing a major role in the management of DM in Asian countries. In particular, mulberry has commonly been utilized in China for the treatment of DM for thousands of years. In the last decade, numerous preclinical findings have suggested that mulberry is a promising therapeutic agent for the treatment of DM, and the polyhydroxylated alkaloids, flavonoids and polysaccharides from mulberry may be the potential active components. The present review systematically summarizes the chemical composition of mulberry and the pharmacological effects of different medicinal parts on DM; these effects include influences on glucose absorption, insulin (INS) production/secretion, antioxidation and anti-inflammation processes. After summarizing research findings, we discuss challenges and opportunities, and explore the direction of future research and the potential for developing mulberry into pharmaceuticals for the widespread treatment of DM.

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Compared with plenty of single-functional molecules, multifunctional molecules are scarce and have high demand in further research. In this work, a multifunctional molecule called 10-methyl-2-amino-acridone (MAA) is presented. Interestingly, MAA simultaneously features electrochemistry, two-photon fluorescence, visible-light-induced oxidase mimic, and photoelectrochemistry (PEC) activity, and the related properties are studied in detailed. Multiple functions integrated into one molecule allow MAA to become a versatile signal probe. Therefore, the MAA acted as an electrochemical indicator to detect exosomal total protein with high sensitivity at first. In addition, MAA is used for one- or two-photon fluorescence imaging in vitro and in vivo, including cells, three-dimensional (3D) tumor spheroids, zebrafish, and exosomes. The results suggest that MAA not only possesses favorable photostability, but it is also suitable for imaging in deep tissue. Furthermore, the visible-light-induced oxidase mimic and photoelectrochemical activities of MAA are selectively inhibited by Cu2+, and the relevant mechanism is carefully analyzed. On the basis of this phenomenon, we develop a dual-modal detection strategy for detection of Cu2+ in river water. Compared with a single signal readout model, this strategy is able to avoid false positive and negative detection through two series of data mutually validating each other. Therefore, our study shows that the “multiple-in-one” MAA provides a blueprint for the investigation and application of a multifunctional organic molecule.