Antidiabetic Plants: Properties and Applications

Diabetes is one of the chronic diseases of metabolism, which procure around 2.8% of the world''s demographics. It is up surging across every continent in the world. Treatment to prevent this disease is an important challenge for researchers. Conventional drugs for the treatment of this disease improve insulin sensitivity. Increased production of insulin results in a decreased blood glucose level. However, they have additional side effects and do not always provide satisfactory results. The WHO estimates that approximately 80% of the world’s population rely on traditional medicine for their primary health care and many plants have ethnomedical claims of usefulness in the treatment of diabetes and other chronic diseases globally and have been employed empirically in antidiabetic, antihyperlipidemic, antihypertensive, anti-inflammatory and antiparasitic remedies. Plants are paramount for potential lead candidates’ discovery, which can play an important role in drug discovery and development projects. Plants are an alternative source to overcome this problem as they contain various phytocompounds which show protective effects against diabetes.