The Role of Medicinal Plants in the Treatment and Management of Type 2 Diabetes

Diabetes is a severe metabolic disorder characterized by hyperglycemia. Hyperglycemia is a hallmark of diabetes, a life-threatening metabolic condition. There are a variety of oral hypoglycemic drugs in the market for the treatment of diabetes mellitus, including biguanides, sulphonylurea, and alpha-glucosidase inhibitors. On the other hand, these conventional methods of treating diabetes are costly and associated with a variety of long-term issues, whereas medicinal herbs used to treat diabetes are inexpensive and have no harmful consequences or side effects. Because of the existence of different therapeutically relevant active phytochemicals such as tannins, flavonoids, alkaloids, and other compounds in medicinal plants, they can be used in treating diabetes. Various medicinal plants used to treat diabetes mellitus and their bioactive components are discussed in this review article. In this review, the prospects of these medicinal plants, as well as the challenges associated with their use, are discussed.