Costus is from the Costaceae family, a group of tropical herblike plants. Costus is used in Guinean, Brazilian, and Trinidadian traditional medicine for various uses, as well as in the Dominican Republic and parts of the United States for diabetes.
Although several Costus species have a history of use, human studies showing the safety or efficacy of Costus species are lacking.
Note: The focus of this monograph is Costus spp. and not the herb with the common name costus
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Keller, A. C., Vandebroek, I., Liu, Y., Balick, M. J., Kronenberg, F., Kennelly, E. J., and Brillantes, A. M. Costus spicatus tea failed to improve diabetic progression in C57BLKS/J db/db mice, a model of type 2 diabetes mellitus. J Ethnopharmacol. 1-21-2009;121(2):248-254. View Abstract
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Owolabi, O. J., Omogbai, E. K., and Falodun, A. Oxytocic effects of the aqueous leaf extract of Costus lucanusianus - family Costaceae on isolated non-pregnant rat uterus. Pak.J Pharm.Sci. 2010;23(2):207-211. View Abstract
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Shetty, A. J., Choudhury, D., Rejeesh, Nair, V., Kuruvilla, M., and Kotian, S. Effect of the insulin plant (Costus igneus) leaves on dexamethasone-induced hyperglycemia. Int.J Ayurveda.Res 2010;1(2):100-102. View Abstract
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