Comprehensive Review on Phytochemicals, Pharmacological and Clinical Potentials of Gymnema sylvestre

Farzana Khan; Md Moklesur Rahman Sarker; Long Chiau Ming; Isa Naina Mohamed; Chao Zhao; Bassem Y Sheikh; Hiew Fei Tsong; Mohammad A Rashid

doi:10.3389/fphar.2019.01223

Comprehensive Review on Phytochemicals, Pharmacological and Clinical Potentials of Gymnema sylvestre

Front Pharmacol. 2019 Oct 29:10:1223. doi: 10.3389/fphar.2019.01223. eCollection 2019.

Authors

Farzana Khan^{1

2}, Md Moklesur Rahman Sarker^{1

2}, Long Chiau Ming^{3

4}, Isa Naina Mohamed⁵, Chao Zhao⁶, Bassem Y Sheikh⁷, Hiew Fei Tsong⁸, Mohammad A Rashid⁹

Affiliations

¹ Department of Pharmacy, State University of Bangladesh, Dhaka, Bangladesh.
² Pharmacology and Toxicology Research Division, Health Med Science Research Ltd., Dhaka, Bangladesh.
³ PAPRSB Institute of Health Sciences, Universiti Brunei Darussalam, Bandar Seri Begawan, Brunei.
⁴ Division of Pharmacy, School of Medicine, College of Health and Medicine, University of Tasmania, Hobart, TAS, Australia.
⁵ Department of Pharmacology, Faculty of Medicine, Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia (The National University of Malaysia), Cheras, Malaysia.
⁶ College of Food Science, Fujian Agriculture and Forestry University, Fuzhou, China.
⁷ Faculty of Medicine, Taibah University, Almadinah Almunawwarah, Saudi Arabia.
⁸ Alpro Pharmacy and Powerlife, Port Dickson, Malaysia.
⁹ Phytochemical Research Laboratory, Department of Pharmaceutical Chemistry, University of Dhaka, Dhaka, Bangladesh.

Abstract

Gymnema sylvestre is a plant included in Apocynaceae family and is located in many regions of Asia, Africa and Australia. This plant is widely used as a traditional therapy for different purposes. Even now it is being used as a dietary supplement due to its numerous therapeutic uses. It is known to have blood glucose lowering potential and, thus, is widely used in traditional and Ayurvedic systems of medicine. It renders glucose lowering activity due to the presence of phytochemicals, such as gurmarin, gymnemic acid as well as gymnemasaponins. Gymnema sylvestre is also known to have anti-oxidant, antibiotic, anti-inflammatory, antiviral, gastro and hepatoprotective, anticancer and lipid-lowering activities. This review discusses in details on different pharmacological and clinical potentials of Gymnema sylvestre and its chemical constituents associated with its therapeutic potentials.

Keywords: Gymnema sylvestre; antidiabetic; complementary and alternative medicine; herbal medicine; immunomodulating; lipid lowering; phytomedicine; traditional medicine.

Publication types

Review