Jiaogulan (Gynostemma Pentaphyllum) - One of the Best Natural Home Remedies for Diabetes

In this article, we will only look at the available scientific evidence directly related to diabetes (points 1-4 above).

If you want to examine the studies supporting points 5-8, please take a look at the complete list of health benefits of Jiaogulan.

You can also join our mailing list and download our free e-book - Health, Balance and Wellbeing with the "Herb of Immortality".

We will also be adding more anti-diabetic herbs that we are excited about and will be notifying our subscribers when we do.

So make sure you stay up-to-date not only on Jiaogulan but other herbs that can make a big difference in your life.

I discovered Jiaogulan while living abroad in Thailand, not long after my father was diagnosed with pre-diabetes some 7 years ago.

Like many people today, my dad wanted to avoid taking pharmaceutical drugs for as long as possible.

Despite his doctor's recommendation to start on Metformin, my father wanted to try a natural approach first.

He knew that pharmaceutical drugs have many side effects and can be potentially detrimental to overall health

They are also expensive and can be a one-way street - once you start taking them, it is usually for life.

I agreed with him and set out to find out if there were any home or herbal remedies that the Thai locals were using to fight diabetes.

Thailand is a country where traditional and herbal medicine is widely practiced, and Thai people in general tend to use herbal remedies to treat a variety of diseases.

I started asking around and soon enough came across a herb called Jiaogulan, or Gynostemma pentaphyllum, which is virtually unknown around the world, yet was very highly regarded by the locals.

They called it the "Herb of Immortality", because of its many health benefits and a folk legend that people who drink it on a regular basis tend to live to very old age and in excellent health.

One of the claimed benefits was that it is successful in treating and possibly even reversing diabetes.

What I heard intrigued me and so I started to research this plant both on the Internet and in the scientific literature.

I was surprised to find that there has been a lot of scientific interest and research on Gynostemma since its modern-day discovery over 50 years ago.

This interest was mainly due to the fact that Jiaogulan contains the largest variety of a class of plant chemicals known as saponins of any other plant in the world.

These saponins give many medicinal plants, like Ginseng, their therapeutic properties.

However, while Panax ginseng (one of the richest in saponins plants) contains around 28 different saponins, Jiaogulan is known today to contain at least 249 of them - almost 9 times as many!

After 3 months of research and examining over 300 published scientific studies on the plant's medicinal properties, I realized that Jiaogulan could be very beneficial to people suffering not only from diabetes but a large number of other conditions and diseases.

It became obvious that it may be one of the healthiest plants on the planet.

Convinced by my research, I was excited to find out whether Jiaogulan would have a positive effects on my father's pre-diabetes.

Up to that point he had been trying to manage his blood sugar levels using only cinnamon supplements, a healthy diet, and regular exercise.

During that time (around 1 year) his fasting plasma glucose (FPG) level had remained more or less stable around 7 mmol/L, with spikes whenever he wasn't being careful enough about his diet.

So what happened once I mailed my dad a few packs and he started drinking Gynostemma tea daily?

After only 3 months of drinking Jiaogulan tea, his FPG level dropped all the way down to around 5.2 mmol/L - a perfectly healthy level.

And has remained in the normal range ever since, between 4.6 and 6.4 mmol/L - going up in the 6 mmol/L range when he eats too much food he's not supposed to.

Not only that, but he has been feeling amazing overall, a lot more energetic and positive, yet calm at the same time.

The improvement has been so marked, in fact, that my entire family has started drinking Jiaogulan regularly, and everyone is feeling great!!

Nowadays my dad doesn't even check his glucose level more once per month, because it has remained in a stable and safe range.

For all intents and purposes his pre-diabetes is now gone (to the great surprise of his doctor), and my dad no longer restricts his diet in any way.

There are two root causes for the onset of diabetes: insufficient production of the hormone insulin by the pancreas, and/or the inability of cells in the body to use insulin properly (insulin resistance).

Both lead to increased glucose levels in the blood.

Over time, elevated concentrations of blood glucose result in damage to nerves and blood vessels, leading to complications such as heart disease, stroke, blindness, kidney failure, and lower-limb amputations.

A number of human and animal studies show that Jiaogulan is able to significantly lower blood sugar and glycosylated hemoglobin (HbA_1C) levels in a relatively short period of time, both as a standalone therapy and in combination with an anti-diabetic drug.

Jiaogulan was also shown to reduce the 30 and 120-minute post-load values of an oral glucose tolerance test.

The human studies concluded that Jiaogulan is mainly able to lower blood sugar by significantly improving the insulin sensitivity of the cells.

Although not yet confirmed by human studies, there is much evidence from animal studies to suggest that Gynostemma is also able to increase blood insulin levels and stimulate the pancreas to produce more insulin.

In addition to directly attacking the underlying causes of diabetes, Jiaogulan has been shown to have strong protective effects on the cardiovascular system, the nervous system, the liver, and kidneys from both diabetic and non-diabetic damage.

Finally, there have been NO instances of hypoglycemia recorded in any Gynostemma clinical trial to date. The herb seems to lower blood sugar only if levels are too high.

That being said, caution should still be exercised if taking the herb along with anti-diabetic drugs.

So let's take a look at the studies.

In a 12-week long study, patients with diabetes type 2 who had never previously taken anti-diabetic drugs were divided in 2 groups: a placebo and a Jiaogulan treatment group.

The study measured fasting plasma glucose (FPG) levels and glycosylated hemoglobin (HbA_1C).

The study showed that the FPG of patients on the Jiaogulan treatment decreased an average of 3 mmol/L compared to a decrease of only 0.6 mmol/L in the placebo group.

In addition, HbA_1C dropped by 2% in the Jiaogulan group compared to 0.2% in the placebo group.

Finally, the insulin resistance of the Jiaogulan group as measured by Homeostasis Model Assessment-Insulin Resistance (HOMA-IR) decreased by 2.1 points, while it increased by 1.1 point in the placebo group. ²

In a 12-week long randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled clinical trial, type 2 diabetes patients were divided into two groups: one treated with the anti-diabetic drug Gliclazide (sulfonylurea) and Jiaogulan, and another with Gliclazide and green tea as a placebo.

During the first 4 weeks all patients were treated daily with a single dose of 30 mg Gliclazide only.

They saw an average decrease in fasting plasma glucose (FPG) levels from 11.4 mmol/L to 9.3 mmol/L, while their HbA_1C dropped 1% from 9.9% average to 8.9%. An increase in insulin levels was also observed.

For the remaining 8 weeks of the study, the two groups continued on the same dosage of Gliclazide, with the addition of Jiaogulan in one group and green tea in the other.

By the end of the study, the FPG of the Jiaogulan + Gliclazide group had decreased further by an average of 2.9 mmol/L compared to 0.9 mmol/L in the green tea + Gliclazide group.

In addition, HbA_1C in the Jiaogulan group dropped by an additional 2% compared to 0.7% in the green tea group.

Therapy with Jiaogulan also reduced the 30 and 120-minute oral glucose tolerance test postload values by 1.8 mmol/L and 3.6 mmol/L respectively, while in the green tea group these values INCREASED by 1.2 mmol/L and 1.3 mmol/L respectively. Other improvements were also observed, but were not statistically significant.

The researchers noted that using Gliclazide (sulfonylurea) with Jiaogulan gave similar results to a combiation therapy of Gliclazide and Metformin, but without any of the side-effects reported in those studies, which included diarrhea, nausea, epigastric discomfort, and anorexia.

It is also important to note, one again, that at the end of the study the difference in FPG levels between participants on Jiaogulan was MUCH smaller than those who were on placebo and Gliclazide. This indicates that Jiaogulan was equally effective for ALL patients.³

Animal studies have shown that Jiaogulan reduces blood glucose levels and inhibits increases in blood glucose after a glucose challenge test^{4, 5, 6} due to its ability to improve glucose tolerance in the body.^{7, 8, 9, 10}

Jiaogulan has been found to increase insulin concentrations in the blood by improving the liver’s capacity to metabolize glucose,^{4, 5, 8, 16} and to stimulate pancreatic beta-cells (islets) to secrete more insulin.^{4, 11, 12, 13, 17}

Increased insulin secretion was found to be proportionally stronger with increases in both blood glucose levels and Jiaogulan concentrations.¹⁶

Jiaogulan has also been found to protect the heart and cardiovascular system of diabetic rats from diabetic damage, which is an important additional benefit.^{14, 15} Moreover, it was found to protect the liver, to inhibit weight gain, and reduce blood fat levels of type 2 diabetic rats with non-alcoholic fatty liver disease.¹⁷.