REVIEW article
Front. Pharmacol.
Sec. Ethnopharmacology
Volume 16 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fphar.2025.1646591
This article is part of the Research TopicHerbal Medicine for the Treatment of Chronic Metabolic Diseases, Volume IIView all 28 articles
Antidiabetic Potential of Gynura Procumbens (Lour.) Merr.: A Review of In Vitro and In Vivo Studies
Provisionally accepted
NURUL HAFIZAH MOHD NOR
FARAH HANAN FATHIHAH BINTI JAFFAR
Mohd Izhar Ariff Mohd Kashim
Mohd Helmy Mokhtar*- National University of Malaysia, Bangi, Malaysia
Select one of your emails
You have multiple emails registered with Frontiers:
Notify me on publication
Please enter your email address:
If you already have an account, please login
You don't have a Frontiers account ? You can register here
Diabetes mellitus (DM) is a chronic metabolic disease that affects around 10.5% of adults worldwide. It leads to significant complications, including nephropathy, retinopathy and cardiovascular disease. Conventional treatments for DM often involve the long-term use of pharmacological agents, which can be costly and are associated with various side effects. Due to these challenges, there is growing interest in complementary treatments, particularly those derived from botanical drugs, to explore their potential antidiabetic properties. Gynura procumbens (Lour.) Merr. (GP) has been scientifically studied and shown to possess antioxidant properties that lead to a significant reduction in blood glucose levels and an improvement in lipid profile. The aim of this review is therefore to provide a detailed overview of the current state of knowledge on the antidiabetic potential of GP based on four in vitro studies and 12 in vivo studies. GP extract in concentrations between 50 mg and 3000 mg shows promising potential as an antidiabetic agent, with some studies suggesting comparable efficacy to metformin in the treatment of diabetes. In addition, phytochemical studies of GP have revealed a diverse phytochemical metabolite, with a predominance of polyphenolic metabolites, especially phenolic acids and flavonoids, extracted from various solvents. However, the evidence remains mixed, as other studies have presented varying results on the efficacy of GP in the treatment of diabetes. This could be due to the lack of standardisation of the extract preparation, insufficient information on the bioactive metabolite responsible for the observed effects and the lack of clinical studies. Therefore, more comprehensive studies including clinical trials are needed to clarify the discrepancies in the findings and provide a clearer effect of GP in alleviating DM. With these improvements, GP could complement standard DM treatments and offer patients a safer, more holistic approach.
Keywords: Diabetes Mellitus, Antidiabetic plant, Gynura procumbens, Hypoglycaemic, Antioxidative, phytochemical
Received: 13 Jun 2025; Accepted: 04 Aug 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 MOHD NOR, JAFFAR, Mohd Kashim and Mokhtar. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Mohd Helmy Mokhtar, National University of Malaysia, Bangi, Malaysia
Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.