Role of plant secondary metabolites as antidiabetic agents

Abstract

Plant kingdom is considered to be a convenient source for potential therapeutic drugs. It is a preferred choice due to their easy availability, affordability and considered safe with minimal side effects. Owing to these advantages, enormous efforts have been routed toward search for effective plant-derived drugs against life-threatening diseases like cancer, diabetes, and other disorders in cardiovascu- lar, neurological, respiratory systems, etc. Nowadays, diabetes is one of the most complex metabolic disorders affecting the pathophysiology of individuals of almost all age groups worldwide. Currently, antidiabetic drugs used for diabetes management are majorly derived from synthetic source. However, these synthetic drugs come with serious complications like hypoglycemia, hyperinsulinemia, fatigue, nausea, toxicity in kidney and liver, etc. Whereas, plants offer a quiver of secondary metabolites which can act as effective, safe antidiabetic drugs with minimal or no side effects. Considering these advantages, this chapter is focused on reporting the uses of plants, or plant parts, and/or plant extracts in diabetes treatment. It is also centered towards assembling the recent studies on uses of plants acting on different targets for controlling diabetes. The present chapter highlights the role of plant secondary metabolites as an acting molecule on different targets for diabetes treatment.