Herbal drugs may help in putting a check on rising diabetic cases

NEW DELHI: As the number of people with diabetes in the country is increasing rapidly, the government as well as diabetic patients are banking upon ayurvedic formulations to put a check on the disease.

According to the World Health Organisation (WHO) report, there are about 42 crore diabetic people in the globe and China is at the top with 11.43 crore people suffering from diabetic followed by India with 7.29 crore cases of diabetic reported in 2017.

Concerned over the estimates of the WHO, which has estimated that by 2030 nearly 9 per cent of India’s population would be affected with diabetic, the government has initiated several steps to create awareness among masses about the causes of the disease.

Recognising the efficacy of herbal drugs in treating and managing the diseases, the Ayush Ministry has implemented Madhumeha Mission and the WHO has also listed 21,000 plants, out of which 2,500 species are found in India.

Given that diabetic is mainly affecting people due to irregular food habits, lesser physical works, etc, the focus of the agencies would be on restricting the further increase in the number of diabetic cases by ‘encouraging’ them to adopt yoga, medicines based on ayurvedic formulations.

Besides, physical exercises, diabetic patients are also switching to herbal anti-diabetic drugs such as BGR-34 from conventional allopathic drugs due to a rise in the prices of modern medicines.

Notably, the Csir-developed anti-diabetic drug BGR-34 has been proving a major remedy to tackle Type-2 diabetes in which body does stop producing enough insulin or respond properly to it.

In the country, herbs like daruharidra, giloy, gudmar (Gymnema Sylvestre), bitter gourds have been commonly used as anti-diabetic and antihyperglycemic agents as these herbs not only attack agents causing high sugar levels in the body, but also improve immunity. As per a study published in Journal of Traditional and Complementary Medicine, the ayurvedic drug, which is being introduced in the retail market by AIMIL Pharmaceutical, has also been found effective in cutting down heart attacks by 50 per cent in diabetic patients.