Hypoglycemic Effects of Plant Flavonoids: A Review

Abstract

Diabetes mellitus is a metabolic disorder with chronic high blood glucose levels, and it is associated with defects in insulin secretion, insulin resistance, or both. It is also a major public issue, affecting the world's population. This disease contributes to long-term health complications such as dysfunction and failure of multiple organs, including nerves, heart, blood vessels, kidneys, and eyes. Flavonoids are phenolic compounds found in nature and usually present as secondary metabolites in plants, vegetables, and fungi. Flavonoids possess many health benefits such as anti-inflammatory and antioxidant activities, and naturally occurring flavonoids contribute to antidiabetic effects.Many studies conducted in vivo and in vitro have proven the hypoglycemic effect of plant flavonoids. A large number of studies showed that flavonoids hold positive results in controlling the blood glucose level in streptozotocin (STZ)-induced diabetic rats and further prevent the complications of diabetes. The future development of flavonoid-based drugs is believed to provide significant effects on diabetes mellitus and diabetes complication diseases. This review aims at summarizing the various types of flavonoids that function as hyperglycemia regulators such as inhibitors of α-glucosidase and glucose cotransporters in the body. This review article discusses the hypoglycemic effects of selected plant flavonoids namely quercetin, kaempferol, rutin, naringenin, fisetin, and morin. Four search engines, PubMed, Google Scholar, Scopus, and SciFinder, are used to collect the data.

Comparative Evaluation of Various Extraction Techniques for Secondary Metabolites from Bombax ceiba L. Flowering Plants along with In Vitro Anti-Diabetic Performance

“…Contamination of herbal drugs with aerobic bacteria like streptococcus, clostridium, pseudomonas and fungi are the result of unstandardized methods of growing and storing. The chances of high microbial contamination are associated with high starch contents [ 42 , 43 ]. As all extracts were found to be low in contents of polysaccharides, fewer chances of microbial contamination were expected.…”

Quality Control, Anti-Hyperglycemic, and Anti-Inflammatory Assessment of Colvillea racemosa Leaves Using In Vitro, In Vivo Investigations and Its Correlation with the Phytoconstituents Identified via LC-QTOF-MS and MS/MS

“…This could be attributed to its phenolic content [ 5 ]. Although Colvillea racemosa stems were previously demonstrated to contain naringenin and fisetin flavonoids, nothing was reported about its antihyperglycemic activity [ 6 , 40 ]. However, the Delonix species, which belongs to the same subfamily, showed antihyperglycemic, antioxidant, and anti-inflammatory activity [ 41 , 42 ].…”

Chemicolome and Metabolome Profiling of Xieriga-4 Decoction, A Traditional Mongolian Medicine, Using the UPLC-QTOF/MS Approach

“…These natural compounds have a potential role in preventing or controlling diabetes mellitus. The underlying mechanism of the antidiabetic effects of these compounds include improvement in insulin secretion, decrease in insulin resistance, enhanced glycogen synthesis in the liver, and antioxidant and anti-inflammatory activities [ 19 , 20 ]. Berberine, an alkaloid, is the main component of PCC.…”