الفهرس 
NTRODUCTION and RATIONALEOnly 14 pages are availabe for public view
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Abstract
Diabetes mellitus is probably the fastest growing metabolic disorder in the world and it is a major source of morbidity in developed countries. Medicinal plants play an important role in the management of diabetes mellitus especially in developing countries where re-sources are meager. Many studies have confirmed the benefits of medicinal plants with hypoglycaemic effects in the management of diabetes mellitus. The effects of these plants may delay the development of diabetic complications and correct the metabolic abnormalities. Moreover, during the past few years some of the new bioactive drugs isolated from hypoglycaemic plants showed antidiabetic activity with more efficacy than oral hypoglycaemic agents used in clinical therapy.
Presently, there is an increased demand to use natural products with antidiabetic activity due to the side effects associated with the use of insulin and oral hypoglycemic agents. More than 400 plants with glucose lower-ing effect are known. Also a number of plants have a hypolipidemic effect. However, there is little information about plants with both hypoglycemic and hypolipidemic effects.
The pathogenesis of diabetes mellitus is managed by insulin and oral administration of hypoglycemic drugs such as sulfonylureas and biguanides. Unfortunately, apart from having a number of side effects, none of the oral synthetic hypoglycemic agents have been successful in maintaining euglycaemia and controlling long-term microvascular and macrovascular complications. Insulin therapy is used for management of diabetes mellitus but there are several drawbacks, which include in-sulin