Amylase inhibitors: Potential source of anti-diabetic drug discovery from medicinal plants

Abstract

Diabetes mellitus is a metabolic disease characterized by hyperglycaemia resulting from either defect in insulin secretion, insulin action, or both. Though, there exists many therapeutics for the treatment of diabetes, plant based drugs are generally considered safe and are much effective. However, traditional usage of medicinal plants for the treatment of diabetes lacks scientific validation. Enzyme inhibitors have potential role in many areas of disease control and treatment and this review focuses on the plants which possess outstanding anti-diabetic property which could be possibly investigated further for the presence of alpha-amylase inhibitor.