TABLE 1.
Selected plants, which are/were traditionally used in specific countries and their antidiabetic effects measured in studies and discussed active compounds (n.f. = not found in English-language literature for this indication; n.n. = not named).
| Scientific plant name | Countries/areas with traditional use of plant preparations as antidiabetic remedy and adjuncts to conventional treatments in the therapy of Diabetes mellitus (reference) | Selected, antidiabetic effects of traditionally used plants measured in studies | Discussed active compounds | Reference for antidiabetic effects and discussed active compounds |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Adenophora triphylla (thunb.) ADC. | n.f. | Decrease of blood glucose, inhibition of intestinal glucose absorption in rats and mice | n.n. | Sanae et al. (1996) |
| Allium sativum L. | Jordan Al-Aboudi and Afifi (2011), Morocco Idm’hand et al. (2020), India Rizvi and Mishra (2013), United Kingdom Swanston-Flatt et al. (1991) | Decrease of serum glucose and triglycerides, increase of serum insulin levels in diabetic rats | Allicin-type compounds | Eidi et al. (2006) |
| Aronia melanocarpa michx. elliott | n.f. | Decrease of serum glucose and lipids, reduced α-glucosidase activity | Anthocyanins | Banjari et al. (2017) |
| Artemisia dracunculus L. | United Kingdom Swanston-Flatt et al. (1991) | Decrease of elevated blood glucose level and blood insulin concentrations in diabetic mice | Flavonoids (luteolin, apigenin), coumarins (scopoletin), sesquiterpenoid lactones (costunolide), cinnamates | Ribnicky et al. (2006) |
| Brassica oleracea L. | Congo Katemo et al. (2012), Morocco Idm’hand et al. (2020), United Kingdom Swanston-Flatt et al. (1991) | Decrease of blood glucose in diabetic rats, decrease of blood lipids, and restoration of renal function in rats | n.n. | Kataya and Hamza (2008); Assad et al. (2014); Shah et al. (2016) |
| Camellia sinensis(L.) kuntze (Assam) | Morocco Idm’hand et al. (2020) | Decrease of blood glucose level in rats/mice, reduced α-glucosidase, α-amylase, and lipase activity | Catechins, flavanols, polysaccharides | Gomes et al. (1995); Han et al. (2011); Wang et al. (2017) |
| Camellia sinensis(L.) kuntze (Darjeeling) | ||||
| Camellia sinensis(L.) kuntze (gunpowder) | ||||
| Camellia sinensis(L.) kuntze (Sencha) | ||||
| Ceratonia siliqua L | Jordan Al-Aboudi and Afifi (2011), Morocco Idm’hand et al. (2020) | Decrease of blood glucose in rats, reduced α-glucosidase, α-amylase activity, inhibition of intestinal glucose transport | Polyphenolic compounds | Rtibi et al. (2017) |
| Citrus limon (L.) osbeck | Congo Katemo et al. (2012), United Kingdom Swanston-Flatt et al. (1991) | Decrease of blood glucose in rats | n.n. | Naim et al. (2012) |
| Coffea arabica L. | n.f. | Decrease of blood glucose in rats, reduced glucose uptake, stimulated insulin secretion | Caffeine, polyphenolic compounds: chlorogenic acid, quinolactones | Campos-Florian et al. (2013) |
| Cornus officinalissiebold and zucc. | China Li et al. (2004); Ma et al. (2014) | Decrease of blood glucose in mice, reduced α-glucosidase activity, increased glucose uptake in HepG2 | Morroniside, loganin, ursolic acid | He et al. (2016) |
| Crataegus pinnatifida bunge | n.f. | Decrease of hyperglycemia in rats, modulation of insulin regulation, anti-obesity effect, anti-hyperlipidemia effect, reduced rats’ α-glucosidase activity | Flavonoids, hyperosid, chlorogenic acid, tripenic acids | Dehghani et al. (2019) |
| Cuminum cyminum L. | Jordan Al-Aboudi and Afifi (2011), Morocco Idm’hand et al. (2020) | Decrease of hyperglycemia, oxidative stress, and AGE formation in rats, reduced α-glucosidase activity | Cuminaldehyde, flavonoids | Jagtap and Patil (2010) |
| Cynara cardunculus L. | Morocco Idm’hand et al. (2020); Tahraoui et al. (2007) | Decrease in blood glucose and serum lipid levels in humans and rats | Flavonoids | Nazni et al. (2006); Heidarian and Soofiniya (2011) |
| Eucommia ulmoides oliv. | China, Japan, Korea He et al. (2014) | Decrease in blood glucose and increase in plasma insulin in rats, decreased plasma lipid levels in mice, reduced glycation | Flavonoids | Kim et al. (2004); Lee et al. (2005); Park et al. (2006) |
| Hibiscus sabdariffa L. | Morocco Idm’hand et al. (2020) | Decreased hyperglycemia, hyperinsulinemia, serum lipids, and AGE formations in rats | Polyphenolic compounds | Peng et al. (2011) |
| Ilex paraguariensis a. st.-hil | South America de Freitas Junior and de Almeida (2017) | Decrease of serum lipids and glucose in mice, modulation of food intake | Polyphenolic compounds, methylxanthines, saponins | Kang et al. (2012) |
| Juglans regia L. | Jordan Al-Aboudi and Afifi (2011), Morocco Idm’hand et al. (2020) | Decrease of fasting blood glucose, HbA1c, and fasting blood lipids in humans | Phenolic acids and flavonoids: 3- and 5-caffeoylquinic acids, quercetin-3-galactoside, quercetin-3-arabinoside | Hosseini et al. (2014) |
| Lycium chinense mill. | China Li et al. (2004) | Decrease of blood glucose and attenuation of dyslipidemia in rats | Polyphenolic compounds | Olatunji et al. (2017) |
| Malus domestica borkh. | Morocco Idm’hand et al. (2020) | Decrease of postprandial blood glucose in mice and humans, decrease of glucose absorption in mouse intestine, inhibition of human SGLT1 in X. laevis oocytes, inhibition of lipase in vitro, and decrease of plasma triglycerides in mice and humans | Polyphenolic compounds: quercetin, phlorizin, procyanidins | Sugiyama et al. (2007); Schulze et al. (2014) |
| Melissa officinalis L. | Iran, Turkey Shakeri et al. (2016) | Decrease of plasma glucose levels in rats, reduced α-glucosidase, α-amylase activity, decrease of HbA1c, serum triglyceride and fasting blood glucose levels in humans | Polyphenolic compounds (flavonoids), essential oils | Hasanein and Riahi (2015); Asadi et al. (2019) |
| Mentha aquatica L. | n.f. | Decrease of fasting blood glucose and lipid levels, nephroprotective, reduced HbA1c, and increase of insulin levels in rats | Polyphenolic compounds (flavonoids, tannins), saponins, volatile oils | Yellanur Konda et al. (2020) |
| Momordica charantia L. | Asia, South America, East Africa Rizvi and Mishra (2013), United Kingdom Swanston-Flatt et al. (1991) | Decrease of blood glucose and glycosylated haemoglobin and increase of plasma insulin in animal studies, inhibition of intestinal transporters | Charantin, polypeptide-p, momordin ic, oleanolic acid 3-O-monodesmoside, and oleanolic acid 3-O-glucuronide | Grover and Yadav (2004) |
| Nigella sativa L. | Jordan Al-Aboudi and Afifi (2011), Morocco Idm’hand et al. (2020) | Decrease of fasting blood glucose, reduced insulin resistance, and improved β-cell function | n.n. | Bamosa et al. (2010) |
| Olea europaea L. | Jordan Al-Aboudi and Afifi (2011), Morocco Idm’hand et al. (2020), Portugal Neves et al. (2009) | Decrease of serum blood glucose, triglycerides, and cholesterol, increase of serum insulin levels | Oleuropeoside | Eidi et al. (2009) |
| Origanum creticum L. | Morocco Idm’hand et al. (2020) | Decrease of blood glucose, lipids, and HbA1c in rats, reduced α-amylase activity | n.n. | Prasanna et al. (2017) |
| Panax ginseng c.a. mey. | Asia Park et al. (2019) | Decrease of 75 g-OGTT-plasma-glucose indices, fasting plasma insulin, and 75 g-OGTT-plasma-insulin indices in humans | Ginsenosides: PPT, (20R)-PPD, Rg1, Rc, Rd, Re, Rf, Rg2, Rh1, Rb1, and Rb2; peptidoglycan: panaxan B | Vuksan et al. (2008) |
| Peumus boldus molina | n.f. | Decrease of plasma glucose level, inhibition of α-amylase and lipase | Boldine | Jang et al. (2000); Buchholz and Melzig (2016) |
| Potentilla aurea L. | n.f. | Inhibition of α-amylase and lipase | n.n. | Buchholz and Melzig (2016) |
| Pueraria lobata (willd.) ohwi | China Li et al. (2004) | Decrease of fasting blood glucose, improved glucose tolerance and insulin sensitivity in mice | Isoflavones: puerarin | Prasain et al. (2012) |
| Punica granatumL. (peel) | Morocco Idm’hand et al. (2020); Tahraoui et al. (2007) | Decrease of fasting blood glucose and serum lipids in rats | Phenolic compounds | Bagri et al. (2009) |
| Rosa rugosa thunb. | Korea Lee et al. (2008) | Decrease of blood glucose, serum insulin, serum lipids, increased insulin sensitivity in rats, reduced α-glucosidase activity | Polyphenolic compounds | Liu et al. (2017) |
| Rosmarinus officinalis L. | Morocco Idm’hand et al. (2020); Tahraoui et al. (2007) | Decrease of blood glucose and increase of serum insulin in rabbits, reduced α-glucosidase activity | Volatile oils | Bakırel et al. (2008) |
| Salvia officinalis L. | Morocco Idm’hand et al. (2020); Tahraoui et al. (2007), United Kingdom Swanston-Flatt et al. (1991) | Decrease in 2-h-postprandial blood glucose and cholesterol in humans, decrease in serum glucose and lipids in rats | Flavonoids (rosmarinic acid, phenolic acids, carnosic compounds) | Eidi and Eidi (2009); Behradmanesh et al. (2013) |
| Sarcopoterium spinosum (L.) spach | Jordan Al-Aboudi and Afifi (2011), Israel Bachrach (2007) | Improved glucose tolerance in mice, insulin-like effects, increased insulin secretion in vitro, reduced α-glucosidase and α-amylase activity | Polyphenolic compounds: catechin, epicatechin | Smirin et al. (2010); Elyasiyan et al. (2017) |
| Syzygium aromaticum(L.) merr. and l.m.perry | Morocco Idm’hand et al. (2020) | Decrease of postprandial hyperglycemia in rats, reduced α-glucosidase and α-amylase activity, downregulation of intestinal transporters | Triterpenes (oleanolic acid, maslinic acid) | Khathi et al. (2013) |
| Thymus vulgaris L. | Morocco Idm’hand et al. (2020), United Kingdom Swanston-Flatt et al. (1991) | Reduced blood glucose and serum lipids in rats | Flavonoids | Ekoh et al. (2014) |
| Vaccinium myrtillus L. | Europe Helmstaedter (2007) | Decrease of blood glucose and lipids in rats | Polyphenolic compounds | Sidorova et al. (2017) |
| Vitis vinifera L. | Morocco Idm’hand et al. (2020) | Decrease of postprandial hyperglycemia in mice, reduced α-glucosidase activity | Polyphenolic compounds: flavonoids, anthocyanins | Hogan et al. (2010) |