Research Article Hypoglycemic Activity of Medicinal Plants Used among the Cakchiquels in Guatemala for the Treatment of Type 2 Diabetes Adolfo Andrade-Cetto , 1 Elda Carola Cruz, 1 Christian Alan Cabello-Hernández, 1 and René Cárdenas-Vázquez 2 1 Laboratorio de Etnofarmacolog´ ıa, Facultad de Ciencias, Universidad Nacional Aut´ onoma de M´ exico, Avenida Universidad 3000, 4510, Ciudad de M´ exico, Mexico 2 Laboratorio de Biolog´ ıa Animal Experimental, Universidad Nacional Aut´ onoma de M´ exico, 04510, Ciudad de M´ exico, Mexico Correspondence should be addressed to Adolfo Andrade-Cetto; aac@ciencias.unam.mx Received 9 July 2018; Revised 23 November 2018; Accepted 17 December 2018; Published 1 January 2019 Academic Editor: Ghee T. Tan Copyright © 2019 Adolfo Andrade-Cetto et al. Tis is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. 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 inefective. High blood glucose levels are a result of insulin resistance and insulin defciency; 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). Te 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. Te aim of the present study was to confrm the hypoglycemic efect 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 signifcant hypoglycemic efect similar to the control drug glibenclamide. When the sugar load was maltose, only Croton and Solanum produced a statistically signifcant (p < 0.05) hypoglycemic efect compared to the control drug, but when the sugar was sucrose, Croton and Hamelia produced a statistically signifcant efect (p < 0.05) beginning at 30 min compared to the control group, while Solanum did so at 60 min and Neurolaena at 90 min. In vitro assays showed that the extracts inhibited yeast alpha-glucosidases but not the rat intestinal ones. Of the tested plants, Croton exert an efect both under sugars' tests and under a normal tolerance test; these results suggest the potential use of this plant. Te results presented here provided evidence based on the use of these plants as hypoglycemic agents in the treatment of type 2 diabetes. 1. Introduction Diabetes is a chronic condition that occurs when the body cannot produce sufcient insulin or use it appropriately. In this condition, the organism can produce insulin but becomes resistant to it, causing the insulin to be inefective. High blood glucose levels are a result of insulin resistance and insulin defciency. In T2D the insulin levels may become insufcient; thus high blood glucose levels are a consequence of insulin resistance and insulin defciency. Type 2 diabetics sufer from insulin resistance and usually relative rather than absolute insulin defciency. Tese individuals may not require insulin treatment to survive initially and ofen throughout their lifetimes [1, 2]. In 2017, the International Diabetes Federation (IDF) estimated that nearly half a billion people were living with diabetes worldwide. Low- and middle-income countries carry almost 80% of the burden of diabetes and diabetes- associated complications, including cardiovascular disease, blindness, kidney failure, and lower-limb amputation, which Hindawi Evidence-Based Complementary and Alternative Medicine Volume 2019, Article ID 2168603, 7 pages https://doi.org/10.1155/2019/2168603