action, thus helping in prevention and/or as adjunctive therapy in the treatment of
blood glucose levels regulation and delaying some of the complications derived of
the DM.
Keywords Diabetes mellitus Á Bioactive compounds Á Antidiabetic Á Antioxidant
15.1 Introduction
Diabetes mellitus (DM) is a serious, chronic, and complex metabolic disorder of
multiple aetiologies with profound consequences, both acute and chronic (Sudha
et al. 2011; Soumya and Srilatha 2011). Also known only as diabetes, DM and its
complications affect people both in the developing and developed countries, leading
to a major socioeconomic challenge. The WHO projects that diabetes will be the
seventh leading cause of death in 2030 (Kumar et al. 2011b). In 2011, the global
prevalence of diabetes for adults of 20–69 years was 7.7%, this was predicted to
rise to 9% by 2030 (Wou et al. 2019). More of 415 million people worldwide was
affected to diabetes in 2017, and this amount may be increased to 642 million by
2040 due to change in lifestyle, eating habits, and growth of the urban area
(Ogurtsova et al. 2017). Diabetes is distinguished by chronic hyperglycemia with
disturbances in the macromolecules’ metabolism as a result of impairments in
insulin secretion, insulin action, or both. There are various types of diabetes of
which type 1 DM (T1DM) and type-2 DM (T2DM). The T1DM is also known as
insulin-dependent diabetes. It is primarily due to pancreatic islet beta-cell
destruction and is characterized by deficient insulin production in the body. On
the other hand, T2DM, also known as non-insulin-dependent diabetes, results from
the body’s inactive use of insulin and hyperglycemia (Baeyens et al. 2018) and
accounts for the vast majority of people with diabetes around the world.
The increase in the morbidity and mortality of diabetes is related to whit
macrovascular (stroke, peripheral vascular disease, and among other) and
microvascular (nephropathy, retinopathy, and neuropathy) complications (Harding
et al. 2019). Therefore, avoiding hyperglycemic states without abusing hypoglycemic states in both type 1 and type-2 diabetes helps to retards the development
of microvascular complications, without being a determining factor in this (Baeyens
et al. 2018; Furman et al. 2020). To achieve the regulation of glucose levels, are
administered mainly insulin secretagogues, insulin sensitizers, carbohydratedegrading enzyme inhibitors, peptide analogs, dipeptidyl peptidase-4 inhibitors,
and glucagon-like peptide-1, however, they all have limited efficacy and tolerance,
as well as side effects (Rotenstein et al. 2012).
In this sense, medicinal plants have been a good alternative in the search for
compounds that help control glucose levels in both developed and developing
countries. It is considered that more of 1200 plants and various secondary metabolites
such as alkaloids, carotenoids, flavonoids, glycoside molecules, polyphenols, terpenoids, and tannins have been used to treat Diabetes (Sachithanandam et al. 2019).
536
S. N. Jimenez-Garcia et al.
blood glucose levels regulation and delaying some of the complications derived of
the DM.
Keywords Diabetes mellitus Á Bioactive compounds Á Antidiabetic Á Antioxidant
15.1 Introduction
Diabetes mellitus (DM) is a serious, chronic, and complex metabolic disorder of
multiple aetiologies with profound consequences, both acute and chronic (Sudha
et al. 2011; Soumya and Srilatha 2011). Also known only as diabetes, DM and its
complications affect people both in the developing and developed countries, leading
to a major socioeconomic challenge. The WHO projects that diabetes will be the
seventh leading cause of death in 2030 (Kumar et al. 2011b). In 2011, the global
prevalence of diabetes for adults of 20–69 years was 7.7%, this was predicted to
rise to 9% by 2030 (Wou et al. 2019). More of 415 million people worldwide was
affected to diabetes in 2017, and this amount may be increased to 642 million by
2040 due to change in lifestyle, eating habits, and growth of the urban area
(Ogurtsova et al. 2017). Diabetes is distinguished by chronic hyperglycemia with
disturbances in the macromolecules’ metabolism as a result of impairments in
insulin secretion, insulin action, or both. There are various types of diabetes of
which type 1 DM (T1DM) and type-2 DM (T2DM). The T1DM is also known as
insulin-dependent diabetes. It is primarily due to pancreatic islet beta-cell
destruction and is characterized by deficient insulin production in the body. On
the other hand, T2DM, also known as non-insulin-dependent diabetes, results from
the body’s inactive use of insulin and hyperglycemia (Baeyens et al. 2018) and
accounts for the vast majority of people with diabetes around the world.
The increase in the morbidity and mortality of diabetes is related to whit
macrovascular (stroke, peripheral vascular disease, and among other) and
microvascular (nephropathy, retinopathy, and neuropathy) complications (Harding
et al. 2019). Therefore, avoiding hyperglycemic states without abusing hypoglycemic states in both type 1 and type-2 diabetes helps to retards the development
of microvascular complications, without being a determining factor in this (Baeyens
et al. 2018; Furman et al. 2020). To achieve the regulation of glucose levels, are
administered mainly insulin secretagogues, insulin sensitizers, carbohydratedegrading enzyme inhibitors, peptide analogs, dipeptidyl peptidase-4 inhibitors,
and glucagon-like peptide-1, however, they all have limited efficacy and tolerance,
as well as side effects (Rotenstein et al. 2012).
In this sense, medicinal plants have been a good alternative in the search for
compounds that help control glucose levels in both developed and developing
countries. It is considered that more of 1200 plants and various secondary metabolites
such as alkaloids, carotenoids, flavonoids, glycoside molecules, polyphenols, terpenoids, and tannins have been used to treat Diabetes (Sachithanandam et al. 2019).
536
S. N. Jimenez-Garcia et al.