Diabetes mellitus: an overview on its pharmacological aspects and reported medicinal plants having antidiabetic activity

Abstract

Diabetes mellitus is not a single disease but is a group of metabolic disorders affecting a huge number of population in the world. It is mainly characterized by chronic hyperglycemia, resulting from defects in insulin secretion or insulin action. It is predicated that the number of diabetes person in the world could reach upto 366 million by the year 2030. Even though the cases of diabetes are increasing day by day, except insulin and oral hypoglycemic drugs no other way of treatment has been successfully developed so far. Thus, the objective of the present review is to provide an insight over the pathophysiological and etiological aspects of diabetes mellitus along with the remedies available for this metabolic disorder. The review also contains brief idea about diabetes mellitus and the experimental screening model with their relevant mechanism and significance mainly used nowadays. Alloxan and streptozotocin are mainly used for evaluating the antidiabetic activity of a particular drug. This review contain list of medicinal plants which have been tested for their antidiabetic activity in the alloxan induced diabetic rat model. From the available data in the literature, it was found that plant having antidiabetic activity is mainly due to the presence of the secondary metabolite. Thus, the information provided in this review will help the researchers for the development of an alternative methods rather than insulin and oral hypoglycemic agents for the treatment of diabetes mellitus, which will minimize the complication associated with the diabetes and related disorder.

Keywords: Aldose reductase; Alloxan; Antioxidant; Diabetes mellitus; Insulin; Oral hypoglycemic agents; Phytoconstituents; Streptozotocin.