ABSTRACT
Plant-derived medicine is the earliest established healthcare system. Even though modern medicine today is quite evolved, people still use traditional herbal medicine in most countries. Many lifestyle diseases are escalating in our population, and people have started inclining towards nature for the mend as it has minimum side effects and comparatively lower prices. Due to the popularity of plant-based natural drugs, various medicinal plants are investigated for therapeutic properties. Diabetes mellitus is a significant, chronic, complicated metabolic condition with a variety of etiologies and catastrophic acute and chronic repercussions. Because diabetes is a multifaceted disease with long-term complications, it necessitates a multi-therapeutic approach. Oral anti-diabetic medications to minimize raised blood sugar levels, insulin injections, dietary supplements, diet management, and exercises are in use. Although the prevalence of modern drugs like metformin and sulfonylurea presides over the usage of herbal medicines, studies in the past decade have reported certain anti-diabetic phytoconstituents extracted from plants have shown greater potential than synthetic medicines. Out of 400 traditional plant remedies, only a fraction has been scientifically and clinically evaluated. Therefore, a comprehensive scientific study of the plants and their phytochemicals is required to justify plant-based anti-diabetic drugs.
