Plant-based corosolic acid: future anti-diabetic drug?

Ganapathy Sivakumar, Daniel R Vail, Vipin Nair, Fabricio Medina-Bolivar, Jackson O Lay

Index: Biotechnol. J. 4(12) , 1704-11, (2009)

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Abstract

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 production, 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 extracts has been reported to act via an indirect mechanism (unlike insulin) in animal experiments. The insulin-complementary anti-diabetic therapeutic value observed in these Japanese preliminary clinical trials has led to renewed interest in the biosynthesis of this compound. So far, there has been 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.