title: Interactions between herbs and antidiabetics: an overview of the mechanisms, evidence, importance, and management.
abstract: Complementary and alternative therapies are quickly gaining importance because they are perceived to be free of side effects due to their natural origin. However, herbal remedies are complex mixtures of bioactive entities, which may interact with prescription drugs through pharmacokinetic or pharmacodynamic mechanisms and sometimes result in life-threatening consequences. In particular, diabetes patients are often treated with multiple medications due to different comorbidities, and such patients use antidiabetic medications for their entire lives; thus, it is important to make the public aware of herb interactions with antidiabetic drugs. In this paper, we summarize the reports available on the interaction of herbal remedies with oral hypoglycemic agents and describe mechanisms, preclinical or clinical evidence, importance, and management strategies.
authors.affiliation: Institute of Pharmaceutical Science and Technology and College of Pharmacy, Hanyang University, Ansan, Gyeonggi-do, 426-791, Republic of Korea.
authors.forename: Shaheed Ur
authors.initials: SU
authors.lastname: Rehman
authors.forename: Min Sun
authors.initials: MS
authors.lastname: Choi
authors.forename: Kevin
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Choe
authors.forename: Hye Hyun
authors.initials: HH
authors.lastname: Yoo
mesh_terms: D041743:Herb-Drug Interactions; D006801:Humans; D007004:Hypoglycemic Agents / Q000493:pharmacokinetics* / Q000494:pharmacology*
chemical_list: D007004:Hypoglycemic Agents