Abstract

ETHNOMEDICINE IN DIABETES MANAGEMENT: A REVIEW

Kishalay Jana , Debidas Ghosh*

Abstract

The term diabetes mellitus describes a metabolic disorder of multiple etiologies characterized by chronic hyperglycemia with disturbances of carbohydrate, fat and protein metabolism resulting from defects in insulin secretion, insulin action or both. The effects of diabetes mellitus include long-term damage, dysfunction and failure of various organs. Diabetes mellitus may present with characteristic symptoms such as thirst, polyuria, blurring of vision, and weight loss. Experimentally, many herbs have been recommended for treating diabetes. In majority of cases, the recommendations are based on animal studies and limited pieces of evidence exist about their clinical usefulness. This review focused on the herbs, the hypoglycemic actions of which have been supported by three or more clinical studies. The search was done in NCBI Pub Med, Google Scholar, Medline and Science Direct databases using the key terms Glucose, diabetes, plants, herbs, animals, patients. According to the different clinical studies, Eugenia jambolana, Aegle marmelos, Allium cepa, Gymnema sylvestre, Momordica charantia, Ocimum sanctum, Nigella sativa, Salacia reticulate, Silybum marianum and Trigonella foenum-graecum have shown Antihyperglycemic activity and in some cases, hypolipidemic activities in diabetic patients. Among them, Eugenia jambolana, Gymnema sylvestre, Momordica charantia, Silybum marianum and Trigonella foenum-graecum have acquired enough reputation for managing diabetes. Thus, it seems that physicians can rely on these herbs and advise for the patients to improve management of diabetes.

Keywords: Antidiabetic, Hypolipidemic, Medicinal Plants.