Abstract
Diabetes has been described as the common metabolic disorder of carbohydrate, protein and fat metabolism, which is due to absolute or relative lack of insulin and is characterized by hyperglycemia. Two main types of diabetes based on their clinical manifestations are identified as Type I diabetes-known as Juvenile diabetes or insulin sensitive diabetes and Type II diabetes or non-insulin dependent diabetes mellitus (NIDDM). Diabetes has been conventionally treated with orthodox medicines that function as hypoglycemic agents, or insulin production modulators and/or lipoprotein lowering agents. Since the therapy is life long, therapeutic agents devoid of side effects would be appreciated and one of such approach is use of alternative system of medicine comprising herbal products. Phyto-constituents identified from traditional medicinal plants are presenting an exciting opportunity for the development of new types of therapeutics. Due to increase in demand by patients to use natural products with anti-diabetic activity, investigations on hypoglycemic agents derived from medicinal plants have gained popularity in recent years. The novelty of this review article is to focus on the utility of hypoglycemic herbs and their polyherbal formulations.