Abstract

ANTI-DIABETIC AND HYPOGLYCEMIC EFFECTS OF CINNAMON: A REVIEW

Younis Muftah Al-zaedi* and Fathi Salem Hadoud

ABSTRACT

Diabetes, a disorder of carbohydrate metabolism, is characterized by high blood glucose level and glycosuria resulting from dysfunction of pancreatic beta cells and insulin resistance. Cinnamon, one of the most commonly used spices in the world. It belongs to the Lauraceae family and has anti-diabetic properties. Cinnamon consists of a variety of resinous compounds, including cinnamaldehyde, cinnamate, cinnamic acid, and numerous essential oils. After chemical profiling of cinnamon’s components, their biological activities including anti-diabetes were reported by many investigators. As a result, current studies have been performed mostly focusing on the bioactivity of cinnamon toward the recently generalized metabolic syndrome involving diabetes. Clinical evidence suggests that popular herbal cinnamon ingestion have direct and indirect protective outcomes for type-2 diabetes mellitus. In this review article, we provide an overview of the recent literature describing cinnamon’s potential for preventing the diabetes mellitus.

Keywords: Cinnamon, Diabetes mellitus, Anti-diabetic, Blood glucose.