Academic literature on the topic 'Hypoglycemic agents industry'

The aim of this review was to point to a great importance of plants from Apiaceae family as a functional food. Caraway (Carum carvi L.), anise (Pimpinella anisum L.), coriander (Coriandrum sativum L.), dill (Anethum graveolens L.), fennel (Foeniculum vulgare Mill.) and cumin (Cuminum cyminum L.) are plants from the above-mentioned family whose seeds are widely used in folk medicine, pharmaceutical industry, as spices, flavoring agents and as dietary supplements. These plants are rich in essential oil, which is a mixture of volatile compounds that give it a characteristic aroma. Their antioxidant and antimicrobial activities have been proven and because of these activities they have great potential to be used as natural food conservatives. These plants also have hypoglycemic and hypolipidemic activities as well as anticancer properties. They are used as food supplements in everyday nutrition and as natural health products for the prevention and treatment of many disorders such as inflammations, hyperglycemia, hyperlipidemia and others. Apart from this, these plants have real application in foods such as pastries, meat and dairy products, pickles and salads as well as spice blends like curry powder, garam masala and others.

Natural products, including organisms (plants, animals, or microorganisms) have been shown to possess health benefits for animals and humans. According to the estimation of the World Health Organization, in developing countries, 80% of the population has still depended on traditional medicines or folk medicines which are mostly prepared from the plant for prevention or treatment diseases. Traditional medicine from plant extracts has proved to be more affordable, clinically effective and relatively less adverse effects than modern drugs. Literature shows that the attention on the application of phytochemical constituents of medicinal plants in the pharmaceutical industry has increased significantly. Plant-derived secondary metabolites are small molecules or macromolecules biosynthesized in plants including steroids, alkaloids, phenolic, lignans, carbohydrates and glycosides, etc. that possess a diversity of biological properties beneficial to humans, such as their antiallergic, anticancer, antimicrobial, anti-inflammatory, antidiabetic and antioxidant activities Diabetes mellitus is a chronic disease result of metabolic disorders in pancreas β-cells that have hyperglycemia. Hyperglycemia can be caused by a deficiency of insulin production by pancreatic (Type 1 diabetes mellitus) or insufficiency of insulin production in the face of insulin resistance (Type 2 diabetes mellitus). The current medications of diabetes mellitus focus on controlling and lowering blood glucose levels in the vessel to a normal level. However, most modern drugs have many side effects causing some serious medical problems during a period of treating. Therefore, traditional medicines have been used for a long time and play an important role as alternative medicines. Moreover, during the past few years, some of the new bioactive drugs isolated from plants showed antidiabetic activity with more efficacy than oral hypoglycemic agents used in clinical therapy. Traditional medicine performed a good clinical practice and is showing a bright future in the therapy of diabetes mellitus. World Health Organization has pointed out this prevention of diabetes and its complications is not only a major challenge for the future, but essential if health for all is to be attained. Therefore, this paper briefly reviews active compounds, and pharmacological effects of some popular plants which have been widely used in diabetic treatment. Morphological data from V-herb database of each species was also included for plant identification.