Introduction

From long time, dependency of ancient people on nature to cure their diseases and illness and subsequently need which resulted into a solution from the nature has made the use of herbs for treating diseases and illnesses. Now days, other pharmaceuticals have created a sense of dissatisfaction in people’s mind and have led to a substantial shift on ancient natural and herbal products as they pose lesser side effects to the body (Khare et al., 2018). Since, consumers assess herbal drugs as “natural” and hence safe, harmless and free from adverse side effects, the use of herbal medicines is gradually being used in both deterrent as well as treatment-based medicines and tonics. Current scenario seeds in the adulteration of herbal and has led to exploitation of the patient’s trust on herbal medicines by the counterfeit drug manufacturers blooming to success. Hence, the escalated demands of the herbal medicinal products have raised concerns on the effectiveness and the purity of the drug and adulteration of the same becomes a challenge as days passes by. Adulteration refers to an activity of supplanting the original crude herb partially or totally with other substance having lower or no therapeutic value to achieve financial gain by trading the inferior quality drugs or by adding allopathic drug administrated for treating the same in it. Referring to diabetes, one of the major chronic diseases, patients with diabetes conform to herbal medicines almost all the time for overall welfare and better hold of the disease making counterfeiters’ aim easily to the anti-diabetic herbal drugs. Sometimes the bioactive molecules of the herb can interact with the prescribed oral hypoglycemic drug, an issue that patients fail to comprehend and can cause severe ill effects. Additionally, multiple drug therapy required by the diabetic patients let them out at greater risk of unwanted drug interactions. In the worst-case scenario, administration of adulterated herbal drugs with synthetic oral hypoglycemic along with prescribed oral hypoglycemic can inflict serious issues such as leading to overdose and acute hypoglycemia followed by death (Chowdhary et al., 2018). One such illness i.e. Type II diabetes, here, is been looked into where allopathic compounds such as metformin and glimepiride are being added into the ayurvedic medicine of the illness.

Metformin is a crystalline white colored powder, hygroscopic in nature and has a bitter taste. Chemically, metformin is 1, 1 dimethyl-biguanide hydrochloride with similar mode of action and uses as that of other biguanides. Metformin is believed to lower the glucose concentration and hence, an anti-hyperglycemic drug for type II diabetes patients without causing hypoglycemia. Metformin is commonly labeled as an insulin sensitizer leading to a decreased insulin resistance and a clinically significant drop of plasma fasting insulin levels (Bretnall, 1998).

Metformin in polycystic ovary syndrome or PCOS has been proved helpful in its management as many women have high insulin levels resulting in cell resistant to insulin’s action. The high levels of insulin cause a surge in the male hormone testosterone and displaying its related manly symptoms. Although not licensed, metformin is used to control its symptoms. Metformin cause lactic acidosis that can occur due to a buildup of metformin in body. It also leads to anemia as it can decrease the levels of vitamin B-12 in body. Additionally it leads to hypoglycemia if other factors like diet and exercise are not properly followed and to various kidney problems and liver failure when taken for long (Bretnall, 1998). Glimepiride (original trade name Amaryl) is a long acting sulfonylurea anti-diabetic drug taken orally. Glimepiride creates a surge in insulin production by pancreas and hence, is helpful in treating type 2 diabetes mellitus; its mode of action is to increase insulin secretion by the pancreas. However, it requires suitable insulin synthesis as precondition to treat appropriately (Basit et al., 2012).

Metformin can cause lactic acidosis, anemia and hypoglycemia in some patients who have been on its treatment for long. It may also lead to several heart, kidney and liver problems. Glimepiride may lead to low sodium levels in body and may cause liver damage.