This paper presents a review of plants identified from various ethnobotanical surveys and folklore medicinal surveys with demonstrated bioactivity in antidiabetic and alpha - glucosidase inhibitory models. This review also identified plant parts with reported activity and where applicable isolated active compounds. This review covers the period 2000 to 2009 and the plants are presented in an alphabetical and tabular form with the family, botanical name, common name, morphological parts or extract used and any isolated active compound. 422 plant species from various families are cited in this review. The plants mostly studied for antidiabetic, hypoglycaemic and alpha-glucosidase inhibitory activities during the study period are Leguminosae (40 spp), Asteraceae/Compositae (37 spp), Euphorbiaceae (16 spp), Rutaceae (11 spp), Cucurbitaceae (12 spp), Rutaceae (11 spp), Lamiaceae (11 spp), Moraceae (11 spp), Ascelpiadaceae (10 spp), Myrtaceae (10 spp), Solanaceae (9 spp). Further more 105 active compounds have been identified as having potential glucose lowering activity. A definitive hypoglycaemic and antidiabetic study of plants from the mostly studied families could lead to novel drugs in the effective management of diabetes mellitus as well as in the management of complications such as cardiovascular diseases and infections associated with Diabetes mellitus.
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