Cure of Diabetes mellitus by some medicinally important dioecious plants

Abstract

In dioecious species, male and female reproductive structures occur on separate plants. In such plants, most studies have been conducted to identify sex of the plant before flowering stage. These plants also contain medicinal properties which have not been exploited at larger scale. Diabetes mellitus is a death causing disease and its prevalence is increasing at a very fast and alarming rate. Herbal drugs are preferred in diabetes treatment as conventional drugs have serious side effects. Coccinia grandis, Trichosanthes dioica, Simmondsia chinensis, Garcinia indica, Momordica dioica and Celastrus paniculatus are some of the dioecious plants with anti-diabetic properties. In these plants, several DNA fingerprinting studies have been done for gender identification but less research is done on their anti-diabetic potential. In the present work, focus is given on these medicinally important dioecious plants and their anti-diabetic properties have also been reviewed.