Hypoglycemic Activity of Medicinal Plants Used among the Cakchiquels in Guatemala for the Treatment of Type 2 Diabetes

Type 2 diabetes (T2D) is a major health problem worldwide. In this condition, the organism can produce insulin but becomes resistant to it; thus the insulin is ineffective. High blood glucose levels are a result of insulin resistance and insulin deficiency; they produce diabetes-associated complications such as kidney failure, blindness, cardiovascular disease, and lower-limb amputation. In Guatemala, there were over 752.700 cases of the disease in 2017 with prevalence of 8.4 (IDF, 2017). The use of plants for medicinal purposes has been practiced in the country since pre-Hispanic times. Among the Cakchiquels, the aerial parts of Hamelia patens Jacq., Neurolaena lobata (L.) R.Br. ex Cass., and Solanum americanum Mill. and the cortex of Croton guatemalensis Lotsy are used to treat type 2 diabetes. The aim of the present study was to confirm the hypoglycemic effect of the plants under normal conditions and under maltose and sucrose tolerance tests, as well as to test the activity of the plant extracts in vitro against alpha-glucosidases types I and II. In agreement with the traditional usage of the plants, in normal conditions without a sugar load, the extracts produced a statistically significant hypoglycemic effect similar to the control drug glibenclamide. When the sugar load was maltose, only Croton and Solanum produced a statistically significant (p

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