Controlling diabetes with the aid of medicinal herbs: a critical compilation of a decade of research

Abstract

Diabetes is a metabolic disorder owing to the insulin faulty production or the resistance to the action mechanism where the accumulation of glucose is the major side effect in the body in the case of diabetes. Numerous herbs with the potential of reducing glucose production along with combating the secondary ailments associated with it but >1% out of 250,000 have been pharmacologically validated. Affordability and historical usage of these herbal remedies often result in patients’ preference as primary or as adjunctive to conventional therapies. Clinical trials conducted with herbs are necessary for determining the efficacy of the herbs against diabetes. Additional benefits of herbal employment include the treatment of secondary ailments in patients along with diabetes including triglyceride reduction, cholesterol level management, body mass index, and cardiovascular disease control. Any individual extract marketed as antidiabetic formulations requires clinical validation before adoption but with ongoing disease status, quick validation in protocols and testing is needed to understand, isolate and cross-verify the status of the bioactive ingredient in individual herb and the polyherb extract formulations. Standardization, characterization, long-term role and impact on the human body, efficacy status, and toxicity profile need to be addressed fully for each active ingredient before it is advanced for production. Therefore, after trials, the related regulatory bodies will be approached to confirm the safety status and efficacy of the prepared concoction.

Keywords:

• Complementary alternative medicine (CAM)
• diabetes
• herbal plants
• insulin resistance
• phytomedicine

Acknowledgement

The corresponding author are thankful to UGC, D.S. Kothari Fellowship for their support.

Author contributions

Conceptualization- S.A.S., S.A.W.; methodology- S.A.S.; validation- S.A.S., S.K., S.A.W.; writing—original draft preparation- S.A.S., S.K.; writing—review and editing- S.A.S., S.A.W.; visualization- S.A.S., S.A.W.; supervision- S.A.W.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Funding

The author(s) reported there is no funding associated with the work featured in this article.