Recent research in indigenous anti-diabetic medicinal plants--an over-all assessment.

Since the discovery of insulin 47 years ago diabetes mellitus has continued to attract, baffle, and reveal itself in tiny facets of its many-faced make-up ; but long ere the days of insulin,in the dim past of Ayurvedic glory. Susruta first recognised the condition when he discovered the honey sweet urine of such sufferers. The syndrome was further described as inheritedor acquired, the former-lean weak, nervous and resistant to treatment; the acquired oralimentary diabetic-fleshy with a voracious appetite, and addicted to sedentary habits, should betreated, they said, by exercise and fasting. Such a classification bears comparison with our modernjuvenile and obese types of the disease.