Medicinal plants with kidney-protecting effect in diabetic nephropathy

Diabetic nephropathy (DN) is a progressive kidney disease, which may often lead to end-stage renal diseases. DN is becoming more prevalent due to the increase in the incidences of diabetes. Controlling blood glucose levels can inhibit DN, but a significant fraction of the diabetic population can develop DN despite glycemic control. Therefore, identification of new drug molecules that can prevent or ameliorate DN by directly acting on the kidney would be a breakthrough in its manage­ment. Medicinal plants offer a vast repository of potential therapeutic agents for several diseases, including diabetes and its complications. A good number of plants have been studied for their kidney-protecting effects on DN. This article summarizes the active compounds and mechanisms by which these plants protect the kidney in diabetic conditions. The majority of the studies are found for animal models. Clinical trials are available only for a few plants, which are also included in this article