Espécies vegetais com potencial terapêutico para o diabetes.

Abstract

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.