Panax ginseng has long been recorded as traditional Chinese medicine. In recent years, studies have shown that ginseng polysaccharide is the main hypoglycemic active ingredient. 21 kinds of Panaxan isolated from Korean white ginseng, Chinese red ginseng, and Japanese white ginseng has a hypoglycemic effect.

The mucilage from Liliaceae, Lycoris, Dioscorea, Orchidaceae, podophyllotoxin, Liliaceae, mallow, and Herba plants has hypoglycemic activity. For example, the polysaccharides isolated from the seeds of the plantain grass, the polysaccharides isolated from the bark of the conical Hydrangea, and the yam polysaccharide isolated from the root of Dioscorea, have obvious hypoglycemic activity.

Generally speaking, the activity of plant polysaccharides is related to molecular weight, solubility, viscosity, and chemical structure. Because most of the structures of hypoglycemic polysaccharides have not been determined, there is not much literature about their structure-activity relationship.