Plant foods in the management of Diabetes mellitus: Vegetables as potential hypoglycaemic agents.

treatment
of diabetes mellitus. A few vegetables that are commonly consumed
in India have been claimed to possess antidiabetic potency. In recent
years, there has been a renewed interest to screen such plant food
materials, for a possible beneficial use. Considerable amount of work
has been carried out in this regard with bitter gourd (Momordicu charunria)
and ivy gourd (Coccinia indica) both in experimental animals and
human diabetic subjects. Majority of these studies have documented the
beneficial effect of the fruit of bitter gourd and leaf of ivy gourd when
administered orally as a single dose. The hypoglycaemic influence is
claimed to be mediated through an insulin secretagogue effect or
through an influence on enzymes involved in glucose metabolism. The
limited number of studies on other vegetables such as cabbage (Brussicu
oleruciu), green leafy vegetables, beans and tubers have shown the
beneficial hypoglycaemic influence in both experimental animals and
humans. There is scope for more extensive research in this area, especially
to examine the long term beneficial effect of dietary vegetables,
to identify the active principle, and to understand the mechanism of action,
which is at present unclear. Since diet forms the mainstay in the
management of diabetes mellitus, there is scope for exploiting the antidiabetic
potency of vegetables to the maximum extent. Such plant food
adjuncts possessing hypoglycaemic activity appear to hold promise as
potential antidiabetic agents.