Herbal Remedies with Hypolipidemic and Anti-Diabetic Activities: Mechanisms and Clinical Evidence

Metabolic disorders like diabetes mellitus and dyslipidemia are emerging as major health problems across the globe, which often occur concurrently, giving rise to cardiovascular complications. The standard pharmacological treatment using statins, fibric-acid derivatives, and oral hypoglycemic drugs has been quite successful but can cause severe side effects on continued use. So, the demand for herbal drugs having potential anti-diabetic and hypocholesteremic activities has gained quite an impetus. The present review highlights the various herbal drugs having dual potentials along with Gymnema sylvestre, Momordica charantia, Trigonella foenum-graecum, Curcuma longa, Allium sativum, Phyllanthus emblica, and Terminalia arjuna. These plants work on the principle of carbohydrate and lipid metabolism, enzyme inhibition (α-amylase, α-glucosidase, and HMG-CoA reductase), potentiating the effect of insulin, and antioxidant activity. There are appreciable results in clinical and laboratory investigations demonstrating their potential use in modifying lipid and glucose level abnormalities.