Abscisic acid (ABA) is a plant hormone active also in mammals where it regulates, at nanomolar concentrations, blood glucose homeostasis. Here we investigated the mechanism through which low-dose ABA controls glycemia and glucose fate. ABA stimulated uptake of the fluorescent glucose analog 2-NBDG by L6, and of [ 18 F]-deoxy-glucose (FDG) by mouse skeletal muscle, in the absence of insulin, and both effects were abrogated by the specific AMPK inhibitor dorsomorphin. In L6, incubation with ABA increased phosphorylation of AMPK and upregulated PGC-1α expression. LANCL2 silencing reduced all these ABA-induced effects. In vivo, low-dose oral ABA stimulated glucose uptake and storage in the skeletal muscle of rats undergoing an oral glucose load, as detected by micro-PET. Chronic treatment with ABA significantly improved the AUC of glycemia and muscle glycogen content in CD1 mice exposed to a high-glucose diet. Finally, both acute and chronic ABA treatment of hypoinsulinemic TRPM2-/mice ameliorated the glycemia profile and increased muscle glycogen storage. Altogether, these results suggest that low-dose oral ABA might be beneficial for pre-diabetic and diabetic subjects by increasing insulin-independent skeletal muscle glucose disposal through an AMPK-mediated mechanism. Abscisic acid is an isoprenoid hormone which plays important roles in the regulation of plant responses to environmental stress. ABA is also present and active in lower Metazoa (Porifera and Hydroids), where it regulates the sponge response to an increase in water temperature and light-induced tissue regeneration in hydroids 1,2. ABA is present as an endogenous hormone also in humans 3 , where it regulates innate immune cell function 4,5 , the expansion of hemopoietic progenitors 6 and glucose homeostasis 3,7. Conservation of ABA across the plant and animal kingdoms points to its very early evolution, in a common precursor to Metaphyta and Metazoa, as a messenger involved in the physiological adaptation of cells and organisms to changing environmental conditions. This general role of ABA in the living is in accordance with its most recently unveiled role in the regulation of blood glucose levels 7. The response to hyperglycemia in mammals is mainly controlled by the interplay between two peptide hormones: insulin, released by pancreatic islet β-cells stimulated by high extracellular glucose levels, and the incretin glucagon-like peptide 1 (GLP-1), released by entero-endocrine cells stimulated by nutrients in the gut. GLP-1 in turn stimulates insulin release and suppresses the release of glucagon, the main glycemia-increasing hormone, from pancreatic islet α-cells.