关键词：医药；糖尿病；葡萄糖代谢；全身性并发症
摘 要：Type 2 diabetes is a chronic disease with gradual deterioration in glucose metabolism, which causes multiple systemic complications. Postprandial hyperglycemia is a concern in the management of type 2 diabetes. Of all the available antidiabetic therapeutic methods, inhibition of α-glucosidase and α-amylase is postulated to be a preventive treatment. Many natural products and herbal medicines have been recommended as being beneficial for mitigation of postprandial hyperglycemia. In this review, recent discoveries of α-glucosidase and α-amylase inhibitors from edible plants are described along with their chemical structures. Their inhibition mechanisms, the type of each glu-cosidase and amylase, and measurement methods for the inhibitory activity are also given. Finally, recent progress on low glycemic index foods incorporated with plants containing starch hydrolase inhibitors is summarized.