A Quick Review on Anti-diabetic Plants and Action of Phytochemicals

Diabetes is an endocrinological disorder arising from insulin deficiency or due to effectiveness of the insulin produced by the body. Around 200 million people of the world are currently suffering from diabetes and the figure is projected to rise to 300 million within 2025 by the World Health Organization. The disease is caused by the inability of pancreas to produce insulin or inability of the body metabolic system to properly use the insulin produced.In Asia, India and China are the leading countries in herbal plants research, and there has been an increase in medicinal research on plants extract for diabetes treatment since 1995 in these regions. The objective of the present study was to document the medicinal plants used for thediabetes treatment, so that future work directed towards the identification of active principles from these medicinal plants may provide the opportunity for the development of a novel class of agents for the treatment of diabetes.In this review, we have attempted to compile a list of total 141 plant species belongs to 82 families, along with their type ofused extracts,botanical name, Plant part used and active principlesare includedbased on available scientific literaturesthose has been reported to be effective in diabetes. Different mechanism of action of anti-hyperglycemic phytochemicals are also shortly discussed. The information collected shows that plant leaves are about 51% more favorable for storing active ingredients, as compared to other parts of themedicinal plants.The documentation of anti-diabetic medicinal plants stimulates the researchers for further research on the potential use of medicinal plants having anti-diabetic potential.