Context: Diabetes is a serious disease which has reached epidemic proportions in many parts of the world. Despite the tremendous developments in medicinal chemistry, traditional medicine is still a common practice for the treatment of diabetes.
Objectives: In Jordanian traditional medicine, 69 plant species are used by diabetic patients to reduce glucose levels in blood. The aim of the present study is to report these plants and link their traditional use with scientific evidence confirming their claimed activity. The plant part(s) used, method(s) of preparation, common Arabic names, and other ethnopharmacological uses are also listed.
Materials and methods: The literature and databases (SciFinder, PubMed, ScienceDirect and Scirus) have been thoroughly investigated and the plants used have been grouped according to the reported scientific evidence.
Results: Results showed that 40 plants have been reported to possess hypoglycemic activities in in vivo/in vitro experiments. Five plant species did not exhibit in vivo hypoglycemic activity, while 24 plants had not been studied for such an activity. Twenty plants had been screened for their α-amylase/α-glucosidase inhibitory activities.
Discussion: The reported in vivo and in vitro hypoglycemic as well as α-amylase/α-glucosidase inhibitory activities of these plants are discussed.
Conclusion: Additional in vitro and in vivo studies are needed to test the hypoglycemic activity of the plants with claimed antidiabetic activity which has not yet been evaluated. Identification of the active ingredients of potent plants might generate lead compounds in drug discovery and development.