The Primary Mechanisms of Drug–Food Homologous Traditional Chinese Medicine Polysaccharides in the Prevention and Treatment of Diabetes

Diabetes mellitus is a metabolic disease associated with hyperglycemia caused by insufficient insulin secretion or insulin resistance. Early symptoms are related to an abnormal increase in water intake, food intake, and urination. In Chinese medicine, diabetes mellitus is categorized as a "thirst-quenching" condition. Currently, the clinical treatment of diabetes mellitus relies mainly on Western medications, which often target the symptoms rather than alter the cause of the disease, and can cause certain side effects and drug resistance. In comparison, the polysaccharides of Chinese medicines from the same source of food and medicine have become an emerging choice for the prevention and treatment of diabetes due to their wide sources, high safety, and low side effects. To reveal the mechanisms of the polysaccharides of traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) in the prevention and treatment of diabetes mellitus, the CiteSpace visualization software was used to conduct extensive literature searches through Chinese and international databases, such as PubMed, Medline, and China National Knowledge Infrastructure. Through literature volume analysis, keyword co-occurrence, cluster analysis, and trend highlighting, we found that the main mechanisms of TCM polysaccharides in the prevention and treatment of diabetes include regulating intestinal flora, improving insulin resistance, alleviating oxidative stress, adjusting lipid metabolism imbalance, and inhibiting inflammatory responses. Furthermore, this study systematically summarizes the mechanism of "using sugar to reduce sugar" to provide innovative ideas for the development of health products for the treatment of diabetes using the polysaccharides of Chinese medicinal herbs.