Laboratorio de Etnofarmacología, Facultad de Ciencias, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, 04510 México DF, Mexico.
Laboratorio de Etnofarmacología, Facultad de Ciencias, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, 04510 México DF, Mexico.
J Ethnopharmacol. 2015 Jan 15;159:238-44. doi: 10.1016/j.jep.2014.11.021. Epub 2014 Nov 21.
Type 2 diabetes is characterized by tissue resistance to the action of insulin, combined with a relative deficiency in insulin secretion. In Guatemala, type 2 diabetes results in significant mortality rates. The low incomes of the indigenous population results in the use of alternative therapies such as medicinal plants to treat the illness. We could not find any previous study related to the use of medicinal plants to treat diabetes in Guatemala. The aim of this work is to determine the most effective plant species used in traditional medicine to treat type 2 diabetes.
We performed an ethnopharmacological field study among the Cakchiquels of Chimaltenango to select the most prominent plants used to treat the disease. Type 2 diabetic patients from their community health centers were interviewed using structured questionnaires. Two mathematical tools were used to identify potential plant species: the Disease Consensus Index and the Use Value. International databases, including SCOPUS, PubMed, and Google Scholar, were used to identify whether the plants with the highest scores were known to elicit hypoglycemic effects.
After analyzing the data, we can propose the following plants as the most prominent among the Cakchiquels of Chimaltenango to treat type 2 diabetes: Hamelia patens Jacq., Neurolaena lobata (L.) R.Br.ex Cass., Solanum americanum Mill., Croton guatemalensis Lotsy, and Quercus peduncularis Née.
The Cakchiquel patients interviewed did not understand type 2 diabetes; however, they associated the onset of their disease with a negative emotion, such as shock, sadness or anger. Despite changes in lifestyle, influences of advertising, the availability of innovative treatments and the use of oral hypoglycemic treatments provided by health facilities serving indigenous communities, the Cakchiquel continue to use medicinal plants as adjunctive treatment. While they are unaware whether the plants can cause additional harm, they consider their consumption beneficial because they feel better. There were 11 plants identified with UVs greater than 0.5 and high DCIs; from these 64% of the plants have been identified as having hypoglycemic effects; this finding supports the traditional selection by the Cakchiquels of medicinal plants to treat T2D.
2 型糖尿病的特征是组织对胰岛素作用的抵抗，加上胰岛素分泌相对不足。在危地马拉，2 型糖尿病导致了很高的死亡率。土著居民的低收入导致了替代疗法的使用，如药用植物，来治疗这种疾病。我们没有发现任何之前关于危地马拉使用药用植物治疗糖尿病的研究。这项工作的目的是确定在传统医学中用于治疗 2 型糖尿病的最有效植物物种。
我们在奇马尔特南戈的 Cakchiquels 中进行了一项民族药理学实地研究，以选择用于治疗该疾病的最突出的植物。我们使用结构化问卷采访了来自他们社区卫生中心的 2 型糖尿病患者。使用两种数学工具来识别潜在的植物物种：疾病共识指数和使用值。我们使用国际数据库，包括 SCOPUS、PubMed 和 Google Scholar，来确定得分最高的植物是否已知具有降血糖作用。
在分析数据后，我们可以提出以下植物作为奇马尔特南戈的 Cakchiquels 中治疗 2 型糖尿病的最突出的植物：Hamelia patens Jacq.、Neurolaena lobata (L.) R.Br.ex Cass.、Solanum americanum Mill.、Croton guatemalensis Lotsy 和 Quercus peduncularis Née.
接受采访的 Cakchiquel 患者并不了解 2 型糖尿病；然而，他们将疾病的发作与一种负面情绪联系起来，如震惊、悲伤或愤怒。尽管生活方式发生了变化，广告的影响，创新治疗的可用性以及为服务于土著社区的卫生机构提供的口服降血糖治疗，Cakchiquel 继续将药用植物作为辅助治疗。虽然他们不知道这些植物是否会造成额外的伤害，但他们认为食用这些植物是有益的，因为他们感觉更好。有 11 种植物的 UV 值大于 0.5，DCIs 较高；其中 64%的植物被鉴定为具有降血糖作用；这一发现支持了 Cakchiquel 人对治疗 T2D 的药用植物的传统选择。
