MEDICINAL PLANTS AS NATURAL ANTI-DIABETIC AGENTS

Diabetes is a growing health concern worldwide and now emerging as an epidemic world over. The management of diabetes is still a major challenge. Plants have always been a source of drugs for humans since time immemorial. The Indian traditional system of medicine is replete with the use of plants for the management of diabetic conditions. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), up to 90% of population in developing countries use plants and its products as traditional medicine for primary health care. There are about 800 plants which have been reported to show anti-diabetic potential. Thus there is great demand for research on natural products with anti-diabetic properties. Numerous studies have confirmed the benefits of medicinal plants with anti-hyper-glycaemic effects in the management of diabetes mellitus. The present paper is an attempt to list of the plants with anti-diabetic and related beneficial effects originating from different parts of world. History showed that medicinal plants have been used in traditional healing around the world for a long time to treat diabetes; this is because such herbal plants have hypoglycemic properties and other beneficial properties, as reported in scientific literature. The review provides a starting pointfor future studies aimed at isolation, purification, and characterization of bioactive anti-diabetic compounds present in these plants.