Plantas medicinais hipoglicemiantes: evidências científicas da ação de espécies nativas com monografia na Farmacopéia Brasileira

Abstract

Diabetes mellitus is a multifactorial metabolic disease characterized by hyperglycemia and has huge prevalence in the whole world leading to a high number of deaths, hospitalizations and associated life complications. Currently, many medicinal plants from the brazilian flora have been used as alternatives to treat diabetes. This work focused on raising scientific evidence on the hypoglycemic effect of native brazilian plant species that have monographies in the Brazilian Pharmacopoeia, 6th edition. The International Plant Name Index (IPNI) platform was used to identify native species from Brazil within the Brazilian Pharmacopoeia, 6th edition. To search for scientific evidence for hypoglycemic activity, the following databases were used: Scientific Electronic Library Online (SciELO), Catalog of Theses and Dissertations from CAPES and National Library of Medicine (Pubmed), with a selection of studies published in the last 12 years (2010 to 2022). Thirty-one species of native Brazilian plants were cataloged, from which 9 of them show evidence of hypoglycemic action, according to the literature consulted. Only 3 species presented clinical studies: Bauhinia forficata (Cow’s Feet), Passiflora edulis (Bitter Passionfruit) and Stevia rebaudiana (Stevia). After an analysis of the articles collected for the study, it was possible to perceive that clinical trials are still scarce. Besides that, the mecchanisms of which thoses species reduces the blood glucose are still not entirely elucidated.