A number of herbs have been traditionally used for the treatment of blood sugar disorders. Cinnamon (Cinnamomum cassia), garlic (Allium sativum), onion (Allium cepa), gurmar (Gymnema sylvestre), bitter melon (Momordica charantia), korean ginseng (Panax ginseng), holy basil (Ocimum sanctum) and flax seeds (Linum usitatissimum) are particularly renowned for their hypoglycaemic effects, but over 200 herbs have been reported to show blood sugar lowering effects. While some of these herbs may have direct blood sugar lowering effects, other may indirectly lower blood glucose levels, for example through their antioxidant activity or fibre content. Studies have investigated the possible insulin-like effects of a number of herbs using in vitro model of adipocytes to assess any insulin mimetic potential. For example, one study1 used 49 extract of commonly available herbs to assess the effects of the aqueous extracts on adipocytes in the presence of the hormone insulin.
Of the 49 botanicals that were tested for their insulin activity on cultured adipocytes, a number showed consistent and significant insulin-like activity. This activity was measured as a change to the metabolism of the glucose within the cells. As has been shown previously, cinnamon (Cinnamomum cassia and Cinnamomum verum) showed the most activity, with the cinnamon extract having the ability to cause change to glucose metabolism even at very low concentrations. This ability to retain their activity at high dilutions was not seen in other herbs. Other herbs that showed insulin-like effects in the cultured adipocytes included allspice (Pimenta officianalis), bay leaf (Laurus nobilis), cloves (Syzigium aromatorium), shiitake mushrooms (Lentinus edodes), white mushrooms (Agaricus bisporus), nutmeg (Myristica fragrans), brewer’s yeast (Saccharomyces cerevisiae), witch hazel (Hamamelis virginiana), green tea (Camellia sinensis) and black tea (Camelia sinensis).
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