Diabetes VS Herbal Medicines

Diabetes mellitus is a metabolic disorder in the endocrine system. This dreadful disease is found in all parts of the world and is becoming a serious threat to mankind health. There are lots of chemical agents available to control and to treat diabetic patients, but total recovery from diabetes has not been reported up to this date. Alternative to these synthetic agents, plants provide a potential source of hypoglycemic drugs and are widely used in several traditional systems of medicine to prevent diabetes. Several medicinal plants have been investigated for their beneficial use in different types of diabetes and have appeared in a number of scientific journals. The effects of these plants may delay the development of diabetic complications and correct the metabolic abnormalities using variety of mechanisms. A considerable number of plants were subjected to clinical trials and were found effective. Moreover, during the past few years many phytoconstituents responsible for antidiabetic effects have been isolated from hypoglycaemic plants. This paper focuses mainly on diabetes, necessity of plants in diabetes, plants used as antidiabetics in various traditional medicines, constituents isolated from these plants, various mechanisms through which herbs act against diabetes and few examples of antidiabetic formulations available in the market.