Plant-based corosolic acid: Future anti-diabetic drug?
by Sivakumar, Ganapathy; Vail, Daniel R.; Nair, Vipin; Medina-Bolivar, Fabricio; Lay, Jackson O., Jr.
A review. Diabetes is one of the nation's most prevalent, debilitating and costly diseases. For diabetes, frequent insulin treatment is very expensive and may increase anti-insulin antibody prodn., which may cause unwanted side effects. Corosolic acid may also have some efficacy in the treatment of diabetes, but without induction of anti-insulin antibodies. Recently, corosolic acid from Lagerstroemia speciosa L. leaf exts. was reported to act via an indirect mechanism (unlike insulin) in animal expts. The insulin-complementary anti-diabetic therapeutic value obsd. in these Japanese preliminary clin. trials has led to renewed interest in the biosynthesis of this compd. So far, there was no clear evidence for a corosolic acid biosynthetic pathway in plants. This article provides possible roles of corosolic acid and hypothetical information on the biosynthetic pathway in plants.
- Journal
- Biotechnology Journal
- Volume
- 4
- Issue
- 12
- Year
- 2009
- Start Page
- 1704-1711
- URL
- https://dx.doi.org/10.1002/biot.200900207
- ISBN/ISSN
- 1860-7314; 1860-6768
- DOI
- 10.1002/biot.200900207