Hypoglycemic Effects of Prosopis fracta

Plants used for the treatment of diabetes in Jordan: a review of scientific evidence

CONTEXT

Diabetes is a serious disease which has reached epidemic proportions in many parts of the world. Despite the tremendous developments in medicinal chemistry, traditional medicine is still a common practice for the treatment of diabetes.

OBJECTIVES

In Jordanian traditional medicine, 69 plant species are used by diabetic patients to reduce glucose levels in blood. The aim of the present study is to report these plants and link their traditional use with scientific evidence confirming their claimed activity. The plant part(s) used, method(s) of preparation, common Arabic names, and other ethnopharmacological uses are also listed.

MATERIALS AND METHODS

The literature and databases (SciFinder, PubMed, ScienceDirect and Scirus) have been thoroughly investigated and the plants used have been grouped according to the reported scientific evidence.

RESULTS

Results showed that 40 plants have been reported to possess hypoglycemic activities in in vivo/in vitro experiments. Five plant species did not exhibit in vivo hypoglycemic activity, while 24 plants had not been studied for such an activity. Twenty plants had been screened for their α-amylase/α-glucosidase inhibitory activities.

DISCUSSION

The reported in vivo and in vitro hypoglycemic as well as α-amylase/α-glucosidase inhibitory activities of these plants are discussed.

CONCLUSION

Additional in vitro and in vivo studies are needed to test the hypoglycemic activity of the plants with claimed antidiabetic activity which has not yet been evaluated. Identification of the active ingredients of potent plants might generate lead compounds in drug discovery and development.

Studies on the in vitro and in vivo hypoglycemic activities of some medicinal plants used in treatment of diabetes in Jordanian traditional medicine

Ferula persica, Paronychia argentea, and Pistacia atlantica are three of the plants widely recommended by the herbalists and used for their hypoglycemic activity in Jordan. Aqueous extracts of these plants were tested in vitro for their alpha amylase inhibitory activity and in vivo for their hypoglycemic activity in normoglycemic and streptozocin-induced hyperglycemic rats. Although the three plants were advocated for their hypoglycemic effects in Jordanian traditional herbal medicine; none of them showed significant hypoglycemic activity compared to the untreated animals. Paronychia argentea and Pistacia atlantica showed significant alpha amylase inhibitory activity while Ferula persica did not demonstrate any alpha amylase inhibitory activity. The main conclusion of this work was the concern over the unjustified claims of the uses of some herbal medicine in Jordan and possibly in other countries.