Comprehensive Evidence-Based Assessment and Prioritization of Potential Antidiabetic Medicinal Plants: A Case Study from Canadian Eastern James Bay Cree Traditional Medicine

Table 1

Prioritization of Boreal forest medicinal plants according to in vivo and in vitro antidiabetic activity.

			Plant identification
			A	B	C	D	E	F
Elders' ranking				3	2	1		5
Biological activities related to primary actions against diabetes	Animals	Decrease blood glucose	☺	☺	☺	☺	☺	?
		Reduce body weight	☺	⨂	⨂	⨂	⨂	?
		Reduce fatty liver	☺	☺	☺	☺	?	?
	Cells	Move glucose into muscle cells	⨂	☺	☺	☺	☺	☺
		Reduce glucose produced by liver cells	☺	☺	☺	☺	Moderate	Moderate
		Favour good fat	⨂	☺	☺	☺	Moderate	⨂
		Decrease glucose absorbed from food	⨂	☺	☺	Moderate	⨂	☺
Biological activities related to diabetes complications	Cell free	Safe to mix with drugs	☺	Moderate	☺	Moderate	Moderate	☺
		Fight bad oxygen, bad glucose	⨂	⨂	⨂	⨂	⨂	⨂
	Cells	Fight inflammation	☺	⨂	☺	☺	⨂	☺
		Protect nerves	☺	⨂	⨂	⨂	☺	☺

Smiley faces: positive effect; ⨂: no effect; ?: yet undetermined. The data that forms the basis of this table has been collated from several studies that have already been published by our team [73–75, 91, 94, 95, 104, 108, 117, 119, 120] as well as data (especially from in vivo studies) that have not yet been published (several currently under review). The names of plants must thus remain undisclosed to protect both the traditional knowledge shared by Cree Elders and the unpublished data.