Abstract

Medicinal plants play an important role in the treatment of diabetes mellitus, especially in the developing countries due to their cost effectiveness. Diabetes mellitus, a metabolic disorder, is becoming a serious threat to mankind health. The prevalence of diabetes mellitus is expected to reach up to 4.4% in the world by 2030. Among all type of diabetes, type 2 diabetes is main complication. Currently available treatment options in modern medicine have several adverse effects. Therefore, there is a need to develop safe and effective treatment modalities for diabetes. In this regard, plants provide the best option for search of desired safe and effective medications. Since ancient times, plants have been an exemplary source of medicine. Various plants have been found to possess significant anti-diabetic property after their preclinical and clinical evaluation. This present review presents the profiles of plants with hypoglycaemic properties reported in the literature from 2009 to 2011. Use of these plants may delay the development of diabetic complications and can correct the metabolic abnormalities through variety of mechanisms. Moreover, during the past few years many phytoconstituents responsible for anti-diabetic effects have been isolated from plants. Since this review has been presented in a very interactive manner showing geographical region of availability, parts of plant used, mechanism of action and phytoconstituents responsible for particular action, it will be of great importance to intrested readers to easily identify and go for further research on the plant oftheir interest.

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