Asian Journal
Of Traditional Medicines

Type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) is a globally prevalent metabolic disease with a relatively high incidence rate in Asia. Its pathological mechanism involves multiple factors such as insulin resistance, β-cell dysfunction and disorders of glycolipid metabolism. In recent  years, Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) treatment has gradually become a research hotspot in T2DM due to its multi-target and multi-pathway synergistic mechanism. Compared with single-target chemical drugs such as metformin have a single target, multi-target and multi-pathway traditional Chinese medicine treatment has gradually shown unique advantages in the treatment of T2DM. This review summarizes the mechanisms of bioactive natural products present in Chinese medicinal herbs, including polysaccharides, flavonoids, alkaloids, terpenoids, and saponins, in the treatment of T2DM. These compounds are discussed as natural products or  phytochemicals associated with medicinal plants used in Chinese materia medica. In addition, representative traditional compound  prescriptions are further summarized from the perspective of multi-component and multi-target regulation. Furthermore, we adopted  the method of network toxicology and conducted relevant toxicity analysis taking Compound Liuwei Dihuang Pills as an example, suggesting that the toxicity of traditional Chinese medicine in the treatment of type II diabetes needs to be predicted in advance to avoid toxicity risks.

Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM), Type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM), gut microbiome (GM), insulin resistance (IR)