ABSTRACT
FOLORUNSO ADEWALE OLABIYI, YAPO GUILLAUME ABOUA, and OLUWAFEMI OMONIYI OGUNTIBEJU
8.1 Introduction ................................................................................. 187 8.2 Diabetes Mellitus ......................................................................... 189 8.3 Materials and Methods ................................................................. 192 8.4 Selected African Medicinal Plants with Antidiabetic Potentials ....194 8.5 Future Prospect and Research Initiatives ..................................... 205 8.6 Summary ...................................................................................... 206 Keywords .............................................................................................. 207 References ............................................................................................. 208
8.1 INTRODUCTION
Since human existence on this planet, man has been surrounded by a wide array of plants that serve numerous purposes such as food and source of oxygen that sustain life. The importance of plants in the maintenance of health is increasingly recognized to the extent that the line between food and medicine could not, sometimes, be demarcated. For instance, Allium
sativum (garlic) is a world-renowned medicinal plant species, but at the same time, it has been used for flavor in the food industry and is also one of the best natural antibiotics known in traditional medicine [121]. Plants play an important and unique role in disease prevention and management.
