Mechanism of Action of Medicinal Plants Towards Diabetes Mellitus - A Review

Diabetes mellitus (DM) is a metabolic disorder characterized by increased blood glucose level (hyperglycemia) and the only cause is insufficient or inefficient insulin secretary response. DM is not one disease but is a heterogonous group of syndromes. There are around 410 experimentally proven medicinalplants having antidiabetic properties but the complete mechanism of action is available only for about 113 plants. Glucose is the main energy source for our body and in the case of DM, management of glucose becomes irregular. There are several medicinal plants whose extract modulate different pathways such as glycolysis, Krebs cycle, gluconeogenesis, HMP shunt pathway, glycogen synthesis and their degradation, cholesterol synthesis, metabolism and absorption of carbohydrates, synthesis and release of insulin, aldose reductase pathway and free radical scavanging action in the human body. The aim of this paper is to provide a comprehensive review of the mode of action of medicinal plants which exhibit anti-diabetic properties.