Espécies vegetais com potencial terapêutico para o diabetes.
Resumo
Diabetes is a chronic disease of increasing incidence characterized by
hyperglycemia, which is one of the main factors for the onset of complications in
diabetic patients. The complications generated by the disease are very costly.
Therefore, the development of new therapeutic approaches that are more accessible
and less costly to the population are important. Many medicinal plants have been
used by the Brazilian population and are the target of researches to confirm their
pharmacological actions so that in the future they can be used in the therapy of
diabetes mellitus. In this context, this work aimed to conduct a review of scientific
literature of plant species with therapeutic potential for diabetes most often cited in
the literature by consulting scientific articles obtained through the Lilacs, Scielo,
PubMed, and Google academic databases. From the literature search and the
reading of relevant articles related to the research objectives, the plant species
Momordica charantia L. (Melão de São Caetano), Bauhinia forficata Link. (Pata de
vaca) and Syzygium cumini L. (Jambolão), with 23, 19 and 18 citations, respectively.
The three plant species were described in this work regarding their therapeutic
potential for diabetes, the chemical constituents present, and the possible
mechanisms of action responsible for and correlated to the hypoglycemic action. In
addition, to emphasize the importance of pharmaceutical care in the rational use of
medicinal plants and herbal medicines, avoiding adverse effects and complications to
the diabetic patient in order to ensure a better quality of life. The results obtained in
this work demonstrated that it is essential to develop scientific research with
medicinal plants with therapeutic potential in diabetes, proving their biological
activities, efficacy, and safety margin, enabling the strategic planning of new
phytotherapeutic drugs that are more accessible, effective, and safe for diabetic
patients.