Anti-diabetic potential of Urtica Dioica: current knowledge and future direction

Anita Chehri; Reza Yarani; Zahra Yousefi; Tannaz Novin Bahador; Seyed Kazem Shakouri; Alireza Ostadrahimi; Majid Mobasseri; Flemming Pociot; Mostafa Araj-Khodaei

doi:10.1007/s40200-021-00942-9

Anti-diabetic potential of Urtica Dioica: current knowledge and future direction

J Diabetes Metab Disord. 2022 Jan 13;21(1):931-940. doi: 10.1007/s40200-021-00942-9. eCollection 2022 Jun.

Authors

Anita Chehri^{1

2}, Reza Yarani³, Zahra Yousefi⁴, Tannaz Novin Bahador⁵, Seyed Kazem Shakouri⁵, Alireza Ostadrahimi⁶, Majid Mobasseri⁷, Flemming Pociot^{3

8}, Mostafa Araj-Khodaei^{2

9}

Affiliations

¹ Student Research Committee, Aging Research Institute, Tabriz University of Medical Sciences, Tabriz, Iran.
² Department of Persian Medicine, Faculty of Traditional Medicine, Tabriz University of Medical Sciences, Tabriz, Iran.
³ Type 1 Diabetes Research, Department of Clinical Research, Translational , Steno Diabetes Center Copenhagen, Gentofte, Denmark.
⁴ Psychiatry Research Center, Aging Research Institute, Tabriz University of Medical Sciences, Tabriz, Iran.
⁵ Physical Medicine Research Center, Aging Research Institute, Tabriz University of Medical Sciences, Tabriz, Iran.
⁶ Department of Clinical Nutrition, School of Nutrition and Food Sciences, Tabriz University of Medical Sciences, Tabriz, Iran.
⁷ Department of Internal Medicine, School of Medicine, Tabriz University of Medical Sciences, Tabriz, Iran.
⁸ Faculty of Health and Medical Sciences, University of Copenhagen, Copenhagen, Denmark.
⁹ Research Center for Integrative Medicine in Aging, Aging Research Institute, Tabriz University of Medical Sciences, Tabriz, Iran.

Abstract

Aim: This review summarizes studies on the anti-diabetic effect of Urtica Dioica (UD) in Type-2-diabetes.

Materials and methods: We studied worldwide traditional medicines, old texts, and published literature for anti-diabetic effect of UD. Electronic databases comprising PubMed, Web of Science, Science Direct, Scopus and Google Scholar were searched to collect articles published between 1990 and 2021 years.

Results: Our literature investigation suggests UD as a glucose lowering, blood lipid regulating, anti-inflammatory and anti-oxidation plant.

Conclusions: UD's anti-diabetic properties make it potential traditional therapeutics for lowering the clinical manifestations of T2DM through affecting hyperglycemia and therefore suggest it as a proper medication with no or limited side effects.

Keywords: Diabetes mellitus; Insulin; Traditional medicine; Urtica dioica.

Publication types

Review