Kalpana Palani
Diabetes mellitus is one of the most challenging and prevalent metabolic diseases results in microvascular complications such as retinopathy, neuropathy and macrovascular complications such as heart attack, stroke and peripheral vascular diseases. Diabetic retinopathy (DR) is a major cause of blindness in diabetes which can be avoidable with good glycemic control. There are number of factors that contribute to vascular permeability and angiogenesis in DR including the oxidative damage of the retinal neuronal cells, vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF), prostaglandins, cyclooxygenase-2 (COX-2) and nitric oxide (NO) synthase. Despite the standards of care, laser photocoagulation and pars plana vitreous surgery for DR, recent successful use of several molecules is bringing a paradigm shift in favor of pharmacotherapy. There is an increasing interest in natural products in pharmacotherapy as the chemical diversity of natural products has better matches than the diversity of synthetic compounds. Flavonoids a common group of plant polyphenols are known for their antioxidant, anti-inflammatory, anti-angiogenic activities also shown their potential in the prevention and treatment of various ocular diseases