Table 3.

Antidiabetic activity of triterpenes tested in animal models

Plant (family)	Compound	Model	Result	References
Momordica charantia (Cucurbitaceae)	Momordicoside S momordicoside T	Insulin-sensitive and insulin-resistant mice	↑ Glucose tolerance ↑ Fatty acid oxidation	Tan et al. (2008)
Eriobotrya japonica (Rosaceae)	Extract containing above 50 % of triterpene acids (tormentic, corosolic, maslinic, oleanolic and ursolic acid)	Alloxan- and STZ-diabetic mice, HFD mice	↑ Serum insulin level ↑ SOD ↓ Glycosylated serum protein ↓ Total cholesterol and triglyceride reversing of insulin resistance	Lü et al. (2009), Shih et al. (2010)
Poria cocos (Polyporaceae)	Lanostane-type terpenoids: dehydrotumulosic acid, dehydrotrametenolic acid, pachymic acid	Diadetic db/db STZ-treated mice	↓ Postprandial blood glucose level ↑ Insulin sensitivity	Sato et al. (2002), Li et al. (2011)
Protium heptaphyllum (Burseraceae)	α- and β-amyrin	STZ-diabetic mice with HFD-induced hyperlipidemia	↓ Blood glucose, ↓ Total cholesterol and serum triglycerides	Santos et al. (2012)
–	Oleanolic acid	STZ-diabetic mice	↓ Glucose and triacylglycerides level ↓ Body weight ↓ Oxidative stress ↓ Gluconeogenesis in the liver mediated by the Akt/FoxO1 axis ↑ Insulin signal transduction in hepatocytes ↑ Glucose tolerance	Wang et al. (2011), Zeng et al. (2012)
–	Maslinic acid	KK-Ay mice (genetic type 2-diabetes)	↓ Blood glucose level ↓ Glycogenolysis via the inhibition of glycogen phosphorylase	Liu et al. (2007)
–	Asiatic acid	STZ-diabetic mice	↓ Blood glucose level ↓ Serum insulin level ↑ β-cell proliferation ↑ β-cell pro-survival signaling (protein kinase B/Akt kinase activation and Bcl-xL expression)	Liu et al. (2010)
–	Ursolic acid	STZ-diabetic mice	↓ Blood glucose level ↑ Plasma and pancreatic insulin concentrations preservation of pancreatic β-cells	Jang et al. (2009)
–	Astragaloside IV	HFD-STZ-diabetic mice	↓ Blood glucose level ↓ Blood insulin level ↓Hepatic GP and G6Pase activities	Lv et al. (2010)