Plants as source of novel Anti-Diabetic Drug: Present Scenario and Future Perspectives

For thousands of years plants and their derivatives are being used for treatment of diabetes. Application of modern science to traditional system of medicine has also given birth to compound like Metformin. More than 400 plants incorporated in approximately 700 recipes are used to treat diabetes mellitus in almost two thirds of the world population. A large number of animal studies to test the claimed activity have demonstrated the hypoglycaemic property of many of these plants. In addition, clinical trials have shown some plants as useful antidiabetic agents, but the pure chemical compounds isolated from the crude extracts of these plants do not bear structural resemblance to the antidiabetic drugs in current clinical use nor have they similar mechanisms of action. But still the search for a novel antidiabetic drug advocates the utilization of plants as a potential source and can be achieved by application of modern scientific technology and recent knowledge on the physiological changes in case of Diabetes.