An Analysis on Indian Traditional Herbal Medicines Used For the Treatment of Diabetes |

ABSTRACT:

Diabetes mellitus is a group of metabolic diseasescharacterized by hyperglycemia, hypertriglyceridemia and hypercholesterolemiaresulting from defects in insulin secretion or action or both. There are lotsof chemical agents available to treat diabetic but total recovery from diabeteshas not been reported till date. Alternative to these synthetic agents, plant providesa potential source of hypoglycemic drugs which are widely used in severaltraditional systems of medicines to prevent diabetes. This review mainly dealswith diabetes, plants used as antidiuretics in various traditional systems ofmedicines and few examples of traditional herbal antidiuretic formulationsavailable in the present market. In the last few years there has been an exponentialgrowth in the field of herbal medicine and these drugs are gaining popularityboth in developing and developed countries because of their natural origin andless side effects. Many traditional medicines in use are derived from medicinalplants, minerals and organic matter .The World Health Organization (WHO) haslisted 21,000 plants, which are used for medicinal purposes around the world.Among these 2500 species are in India, out of which 150 species are usedcommercially on a fairly large scale. India is the largest producer ofmedicinal herbs and is called as botanical garden of the world.