Medical Herbs and the Treatment of Diabetes Mellitus

Abstract

Diabetes mellitus is a chronic metabolic disorder that affects millions of persons worldwide, and if uncontrolled may cause cardiovascular disease, retinopathy, or chronic kidney disease. Effective therapeutic management of diabetes mellitus involves the use of mainly oral hypoglycemic drugs whose mechanism of action includes improved insulin secretion, reduced insulin resistance, or increased glucose uptake. There is growing exploration of medicinal herbs as potential therapeutic sources for the management of type 2 diabetes mellitus and compared with conventional oral hypoglycemic drugs they have little or no side effects. The aim of this review is to provide up-to-date information on potential medicinal herbs that have demonstrated anti-hyperglycemic activity through either increased secretion of insulin from pancreatic β-cells, reduction of insulin resistance with subsequent increase in insulin sensitivity, or inhibition of intestinal glucose absorption via decreased α-glucosidase activity.