The Potential of Clerodendrum Plants as an Adjunct Therapeutic for Metabolic Syndrome

Metabolic syndrome, characterized by an assemblage of metabolic abnormalities, including central obesity, insulin resistance (IR), high blood pressure, and dyslipidemia, constitutes a serious risk for the progression of cardiovascular diseases (CVDs) and type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM). Oral hypoglycemic drugs, such as biguanides and sulfonylureas, and cholesterol-lowering drugs, such as statins, are commonly prescribed. However, their long-term use may cause sleep disturbance, severe hypoglycemia, muscle pain, gastrointestinal issues, and lactic acidosis (rarely). Clerodendrum plants have gained increasing attention owing to their use in folkloric medicine and diverse pharmacological properties. These plants contain terpenes and terpenoids, flavonoids and flavonoid glycosides, phenylethanoid glycosides, steroids, steroid glycosides, anthraquinones, and cyclohexylethanoids, which have a cyclohexane ring linked to an ethyl group. This review aims to provide information on the potential of Clerodendrum plants as adjunct therapeutic candidates for metabolic syndrome. Articles were searched in PubMed and Scopus using the keyword "Clerodendrum". Clerodendrum plants have the potential to lower blood glucose levels, improve glucose tolerance, normalize lipid profiles, activate endogenous antioxidant enzymes, prevent liver disorders in diabetic models, reduce proinflammatory cytokines, and decrease the risk of CVDs. Following the in vivo toxicity studies, these plants showed no significant adverse effects at the tested doses. However, owing to the limited number of articles reporting human studies, further investigations in clinical settings are required to confirm their efficacy and safety.