Journal of Ethnopharmacology 141 (2012) 786–795 Contents lists available at SciVerse ScienceDirect Journal of Ethnopharmacology jo ur nal homep age : www.elsevier.com/locate/jethpharm Herbal medicines used in the treatment of diabetes mellitus in Arunachal Himalaya, northeast, India Hui Tag a , P. Kalita a , P. Dwivedi b , A.K. Das a , Nima D. Namsa c,∗ a Plant Systematic and Pharmacognosy Research Laboratory, Department of Botany, Rajiv Gandhi University, Rono Hills, Itanagar 791112, Arunachal Pradesh, India b Department of Plant Physiology, Institute of Agricultural Science, Banaras Hindu University, Varanasi, (UP), India c Department of Molecular Biology and Biotechnology, Tezpur University, Assam 784 028, India a r t i c l e i n f o Article history: Received 23 September 2011 Received in revised form 28 February 2012 Accepted 4 March 2012 Available online 13 March 2012 Keywords: Khamptis “Chau ya” traditional healers Diabetes Herbal medicine Traditional knowledge Arunachal Pradesh a b s t r a c t Ethnopharmacological relevance: Medicinal plants have played an important role in treating and prevent- ing a variety of diseases throughout the world. Khampti tribal people living in the far-flung Lohit district of the Eastern Arunachal Himalaya, India still depend on medicinal plants and most of them have a general knowledge of medicinal plants which are used for treating a variety of ailments. This survey was under- taken in Lohit district in order to inventory the medicinal plants used in folk medicine to treat diabetes mellitus. Materials and methods: Field investigations were conducted in seventeen remote villages of Lohit district starting from April 2002 to May 2004 through interviews among 251 key informants who were selected randomly during our household survey. To elucidate community domains and determine differences in indigenous traditional knowledge of medicinal plants with anti-diabetic efficacy, we repeated our field survey starting from April 2008 to May 2010 with one hundred traditional healers locally called as “Chau ya” in Khampti of Lohit district. “Chau ya” traditional healers who know and use medicinal plants for treating diabetes mellitus were interviewed using a semi-structured questionnaire. Results: This study reports an ethnobotanical survey of medicinal plants in Lohit district of Arunachal Pradesh reputed for the treatment of diabetes mellitus. Forty-six plant species were identified in the study area to treat diabetes mellitus by the Khamptis “Chau ya” traditional healers. Comparative published literature survey analysis of this study with other ethnobotanical surveys of plants used traditionally in treating diabetes mellitus suggests that eleven plant species make claims of new reports on antidiabetic efficacy. These plant species are Begonia roxburghii, Calamus tenuis, Callicarpa arborea, Cuscuta reflexa, Dillenia indica, Diplazium esculentum, Lectuca gracilis, Millingtonia hortensis, Oxalis griffithii, Saccharum spontaneum, and Solanum viarum. Some of the plants reported in this study have an antidiabetic effect on rodent models but none have sufficient clinical evidence of effectiveness. Conclusions: The wide variety of medicinal plants that are used to treat diabetes mellitus in this area supports the importance of plants in the primary healthcare system of the rural people of Lohit district of Arunachal Pradesh. The finding of new plant uses in the current study reveals the importance of the documentation of such ethnobotanical knowledge. © 2012 Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved. 1. Introduction Diabetes mellitus (DM), a global public health problem, is now emerging as an epidemic worldwide. The latest WHO publication (global burden of disease) estimates the prevalence of diabetes in adults to be around 173 million (Wild et al., 2003) and around two thirds of these live in developing countries. According to the World Health Organization (WHO) about 65–80% of the world’s popula- tion in developing countries depends essentially on plants for their ∗ Corresponding author at: Department of Microbiology and Cell Biology, Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore 560012, India. Tel.: +91 9980549622. E-mail address: ndnamsa@yahoo.co.in (N.D. Namsa). primary health care due to poverty and lack of access to modern medicine (Calixto, 2005). Diabetes is characterized by abnormali- ties in carbohydrate, lipid and lipoprotein metabolisms, which not only lead to hyperglycemia but also cause many complications such as hyperlipidemia, hyperinsulinemia, hypertension and atheroscle- rosis (Luo et al., 2004; Sepici et al., 2004). Complications are the major cause of morbidity and mortality in DM and management of diabetes without any side effects is still a challenge to the medical system. Plants have always been an exemplary source of drugs and many of the currently available drugs have been derived directly or indirectly from them. Ayurveda, the Indian system of traditional medicine, provides a number of medicinal plants to treat diabetes and an indigenous remedy has been used in the treatment of DM since the time of Charaka and Sushruta (6th century BC) (Grover 0378-8741/$ – see front matter © 2012 Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved. doi:10.1016/j.jep.2012.03.007