Diabetes Mellitus Management: An Extensive Review of 37 Medicinal Plants

Plants have been used as sources of medicine since ancient times. Natural products have been used extensively in Chinese, ayurvedic and folk medicine. In addition, a significant portion of the world’s population still utilizes herbal medicine. Diabetes is a common ailment affecting almost 463 million people in the world. However, current medications exert harmful after-effects on patients, while herbal medicines have fewer adverse effects. Plants possess secondary metabolites, such as alkaloids, flavonoids, tannins, steroids, etc., which exert numerous beneficial effects on health. Extensive research has been conducted over the years investigating and proving the hypoglycemic potential of various plants. The present paper reviews 37 such plants that are rich in phytoconstituents that possess a variety of pharmacological activities and have been experimentally proven to possess potentially hypoglycemic properties in animal models: Ficus racemosa, Agremone mexicana, Bombax ceiba, Cajanus cajan, Coccinia cordifolia, Momordica charantia, Syzygium cumini, Neolamarckia cadamba, Mangifera indica, Cocos nucifera, Tamarindus indica, Punica granatum, Azadirachta indica, Costus speciosus, Moringa oleifera, Andrographis paniculata, Ficus benghalensis, Anacardium occidentale, Annona squamosa, Boerhaavia diffusa, Catharanthus roseus, Cocculus hirsutus, Ficus hispida, Terminalia chebula, Terminalia catappa, Amaranthus tricolor, Blumea lacera, Piper betle leaves, Achyranthes aspera, Kalanchoe pinnata, Nelumbo nucifera, Mikania cordata, Wedelia chinensis, Murraya koenigii, Aloe barbadensis, Bryophyllum pinnatum and Asparagus racemosus. These 37 plant extracts exhibit antidiabetic activities through different mechanisms, including α-amylase and α-glucosidase inhibition, increases in glucose uptake and the stimulation of insulin secretion.