Research Progress of Plant Compounds for Diabetes and Its Complications

Numerous chronic complications appear in the evolution of diabetes mellitus type 2 and type 1, and they significantly influence the duration of life of the patient. Diabetes mellitus is a metabolic disease where pro-oxidant and pro-inflammatory mechanisms are intensely expressed. Given the numerous beneficial effects present in compounds extracted from different plants, such as reduction in insulin resistance, improvement of endothelial function, improvement of beta-cell function, improvement of lipid metabolism, antioxidant effect, and anti-inflammatory effect, the idea behind this Special Issue is to present significant results from original research or from international data in review articles. It is not only the potential chemical substances extracted form plants that are important, but also the delivery of these substances to target tissues; therefore, the Issu also focuses on modalities to improve the biological effects of these substances, such as nanotechnology. The standardization of these substances and their potential evolution toward drug development is the key concept of this Special Issue, with the ultimate goal to develop new drugs starting from beneficial plant compounds to target the complications of diabetes mellitus at the molecular level.