Antidiabetic Medicinal Plants as a Source of Alpha Glucosidase Inhibitors

The aim of this study is to collate all available data on antidiabetic plants that inhibit alpha glucosidase, reported mainly by Medline (PubMed) these last years. In the present study, interest is focused on experimental researches conducted on hypoglycemic plants particularly those which show alpha glucosidase inhibitor activity alongside bioactive components.

This study describes 47 species that belong to 29 families. The plant families, which enclose the species, studied most as inhibitors of alphaglucosidase, are Fabaceae (6 species), Crassulaceae (3 species), Hippocrateacaea (3 species), Lamiaceae (3 sp.), and Myrtaceae (3 species), with most studied species being Salacia reticulata (Hippocrateaceae) and Morus alba (Moraceae).

The study also covers natural products (active natural components and crude extracts) isolated from the medicinal plants which inhibit alpha glucosidase as reported this last decade. Many kinds of these isolated natural products show strong activity such as, Alkaloids, stilbenoids (polyphenol), triterpene, acids (chlorogenic acid, betulinic acid, syringic acid, vanillic acid, bartogenic acid, oleanolic acid, dehydrotrametenolic acid, corosolic acid, ellagic acid, ursolic acid, gallic acid), phytosterol, myoinositol, flavonoids, Flavonolignans, anthraquinones, anthrones, and xanthones, Feruloylglucosides, flavanone glucosides, acetophenone glucosides, glucopyranoside derivatives, genine derivatives, flavonol, anthocyanin and others.