Laboratorio de Investigación en Enfermedades Metabólicas: Obesidad y Diabetes, Hospital Infantil de México "Federico Gómez", Mexico City 06720, Mexico.
División de Investigación, Facultad de Medicina, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México (UNAM), Mexico City 04510, Mexico.
Nutrients. 2023 Apr 25;15(9):2070. doi: 10.3390/nu15092070.
Obesity is defined as abnormal or excessive fat accumulation, provoking many different diseases, such as obesity and type 2 diabetes. Type 2 diabetes is a chronic-degenerative disease characterized by increased blood glucose levels. Obesity and type 2 diabetes are currently considered public health problems, and their prevalence has increased over the last few years. Because of the high cost involved in the treatment of both diseases, different alternatives have been sought. However, the general population uses medicinal plants, in the form of tea or infusions, to treat different diseases. Therefore, traditional medicine using medicinal plants has been investigated as a possible treatment for type 2 diabetes and body weight control.
The purpose of this review is to find medicinal plants used in Mexico that could exert their beneficial effect by regulating insulin secretion and body weight control.
For the development of this review, Mexican plants used in traditional medicine to treat type 2 diabetes and body weight control were searched in PubMed, Google Scholar, and Scopus. The inclusion criteria include plants that presented a significant reduction in blood glucose levels and/or an increase in insulin secretion.
We found 306 Mexican plants with hypoglycemic effects. However, plants that did not show evidence of an increase in insulin secretion were eliminated. Finally, only five plants were included in this review: L. (), (), L. (), Mill. () (), including 39 articles in total. Here, we summarized the plant extracts (aqueous and organic) that have previously been reported to present hypoglycemic effects, body weight control, increased secretion and sensitivity of insulin, improvement of pancreatic β cells, and glucose tolerance. Additionally, these effects may be due to different bioactive compounds present in the plants' extracts.
Both in vivo and in vitro studies are required to understand the mechanism of action of these plant extracts regarding insulin secretion to be used as a possible treatment for type 2 diabetes and body weight control in the future.
肥胖被定义为异常或过度的脂肪积累，会引发许多不同的疾病，如肥胖和 2 型糖尿病。2 型糖尿病是一种慢性进行性疾病，其特征是血糖水平升高。肥胖和 2 型糖尿病目前被认为是公共卫生问题，近年来其患病率有所上升。由于这两种疾病的治疗费用高昂，人们一直在寻找不同的替代方法。然而，普通民众会使用药用植物制成的茶或汤剂来治疗各种疾病。因此，人们已经研究了利用药用植物来治疗 2 型糖尿病和控制体重的方法。
本综述的目的是寻找在墨西哥用于治疗 2 型糖尿病和控制体重的药用植物，以发现其通过调节胰岛素分泌和控制体重发挥有益作用的可能性。
为了开展这项综述，我们在 PubMed、Google Scholar 和 Scopus 中检索了用于治疗 2 型糖尿病和控制体重的墨西哥传统医学中使用的植物。纳入标准包括能够显著降低血糖水平和/或增加胰岛素分泌的植物。
我们发现了 306 种具有降血糖作用的墨西哥植物。但是，那些没有证据表明能增加胰岛素分泌的植物被排除了。最后，只有 5 种植物被纳入了本综述：L. (), (), L. (), Mill. () (),共包括 39 篇文章。在这里，我们总结了以前报道过具有降血糖作用、控制体重、增加胰岛素分泌和敏感性、改善胰岛β细胞以及葡萄糖耐量的植物提取物（水提物和有机溶剂提取物）。此外，这些作用可能是由于植物提取物中存在不同的生物活性化合物。
需要进行体内和体外研究，以了解这些植物提取物对胰岛素分泌的作用机制，以便将来将其用作 2 型糖尿病和体重控制的可能治疗方法。
