Antidiabetic and Antihypertensive Medicinal Plants of Asia: Active Ingredients, Safety, Pharmacology, and Traditional Uses

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Diabetes mellitus and hypertension are the two most common diseases in modern civilized countries. It is suggested that hypertension is more likely to be associated with type II diabetes as the patient acquires both diseases at old age. Though several therapeutic approaches were developed to treat the complications, plant-based therapeutics remains one of the most promising approaches. Moreover, traditional medicine remains as a primary health care system in the resource constraint societies. The use of medicinal plants for therapeutic uses has a long tradition in Asia in the form of Ayurveda, Traditional Chinese Medicine, Unani, Jamu, etc. In recent years, the scientific community has focused on natural products derived from ethnomedicinal plants for their wide therapeutic potentials, including diabetes mellitus and hypertension. Phenformin, metformin, repaglinide (Prandin), nateglinide (Starlix), pioglitazone, rosiglitazone, acarbose, miglitol are some of the antidiabetic marketed drugs of plant origin. Lignans, cinnamaldehyde, and protodioscin are newly isolated anti-diabetic drugs from plant sources. This chapter attempts to highlight the medicinal plants of Asia used for antidiabetic and antihypertensive purposes with regard to their phytochemical potentials, biosafety, and scientific evaluation of their traditional uses.