The Effects of Medicinal Plants on Pancreatic Beta Cells in Diabetes: A Systematic Review of Iranians’ Contributions

Diabetes mellitus (DM) is a metabolic disorder with a high prevalence, which affects approximately 25% of the world’s population. This systematic review aimed to assess the Iranian research regarding the effects of medicinal plants on pancreatic beta cells in diabetes.

This systematic review was conducted via searching in databases such as Medline, PubMed, Google Scholar, and ScienceDirect until April 2018. The studied that were published in Iran, peer-reviewed, and designed as a randomized control trial on type I diabetes were retrieved and screened.

The initial search results of the electronic databases yielded 822 relevant articles. After two stages of screening, checking the references, and removing the duplicate articles in various databases, 18 articles were finally selected for the review.

According to the results, medicinal plants have a positive impact on the performance of pancreatic beta cells in animal models through various mechanisms, such as increasing the number, size, regeneration, and reduction of the inflammation of beta cells.