Therapeutically relevant natural products as AMPK activators in the treatment of diabetes

Abstract Type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) is a chronic condition that requires the administration of pharmacological and non-pharmacological agents for its treatment. Most pharmaceutical agents marketed today for the treatment of T2DM exhibit some advantages; however, none of these are efficient in the treatment of T2DM and its risk factors, except perhaps metformin hydrochloride (MET·HCl) considered by far the first-line drug of choice. Another non-pharmacological therapeutic option is the use of naturally occurring compounds, some of which have shown interesting in vitro and in vivo activities in the regulation of AMP-activated protein kinase (AMPK), an enzyme known as a master regulator of the metabolism. In this line, this chapter discusses relevant therapeutic properties of natural products related to antihyperglycemic effects, particularly those that have shown direct/indirect regulation in protein AMPK, for instance: resveratrol, berberine, α-lipoic acid, oleanolic acid/ursolic acid, and ginseng, among others, establishing these species as promising components for the development of AMPK drug regulators.