Perspectives of Indian Medicinal Plants in the Management of Diabetes Mellitus
Contents: Foreword. Preface. Introduction. 1. Ayurvedic and Unani concepts of pathogenesis and treatment of diabetes mellitus. 2. Modern concepts of pathogenesis and treatment of diabetes mellitus. 3. Indian plants investigated for antidiabetic activity. 4. Promising leads from Indian plants for antidiabetic activity. 5. New targets and screening procedures. 6. Discussion and future approach. 7. Summary. Indices.
From the preface: The Indian Council of Medical Research is bringing out a series of Medicinal Plant Monographs on Diseases of Public Health importance. India is going to be diabetes capital of the world during the next 10 years according to the World Health Organization (WHO) statistics. The number of persons suffering from diabetes mellitus in India has gone up from 40 million in 2007 to 62 million in 2011 and is likely to go up to predicted 100 million in the year 2030. Satisfactory management of the complications of diabetes remains a major problem and non-availability of suitable drugs is an important cause. About 12-15 per cent diabetic patients get foot problems and around 1 per cent need amputation. The starting point usually is a fungal infection in the space between the toes but none of the currently available antidiabetic drugs have antifungal activity. Some of the Indian medicinal plants have been reported to possess both the activities but have not been investigated further.
Over 100 plants are used in Ayurvedic formulations recommended for treatment of Prameha and many of them have been demonstrated to have blood sugar lowering activity. Hypoglycaemic/antidiabetic activity has been also reported in several hundred Indian Medicinal Plants but few of them have been further followed. An effort has been made to include all such plants in the present volume with necessary primary references. In addition, a detailed review has been presented on 12 most promising plants which might reduce some of the complications of diabetes as well. In the present age of evidence based medicine, the plants may be selected on the basis of traditional use but their efficacy has to be demonstrated by using modern parameters. Brief reviews of Ayurvedic and modern concepts of pathogenesis and management of diabetes should help in selecting such parameters. The potential targets for novel therapeutic agents as well as screening models have been also reviewed.
