When I went to Ilocos Sur last week, there’s one plant I came to know – the insulin plant. My uncle introduced it to me by saying that he is taking it to maintain his blood sugar. He said, “This plant is given to me to help me with my diabetes by acting like an insulin.” When I asked him what’s the name of the plant, he told me he doesn’t know.
According to him, there are times when he eats a leaf of the plant he would feel weak after an hour. So, he concluded that it must be true. Although, until now he is still taking a pill prescribed by his doctor to control his blood sugar, albeit, he only now take just 1 pill everyday instead of 2 pills as advised by his doctor. And he feels good.
I took one leaf and chewed it. And another one plus another one. Well, it has a mild calamansi taste or sour taste which disappears immediately when its mixed with your saliva. After an hour and more I haven’t felt anything unusual such as weakness. Maybe I have a well-functioning pancreas.
I cut stems and even took some stems with the roots intact to add to my collection of herbs in my backyard. According to my uncle it is easy to grow because it grows easily even with cuttings.
When I got home, I immediately researched it in the internet, and yah, it’s one of the old times folks’ remedy for health. And to know more about it, just search the word “insulin plant” and topics about it come out including studies done.
According to one of the websites I searched, 1 “Costus igneus, commonly known as insulin plant in India, belongs to the family Costaceae. Consumption of the leaves are believed to lower blood glucose levels, and diabetics who consumed the leaves of this plant did report a fall in their blood glucose levels.”
That’s probably what my uncle was saying when he advised “One who have diabetes must have to eat something after one hour of taking the plant to not risk fainting.”
Sources: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2924971/
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