How does banaba extract mimic insulin?
Banaba extract has been used for years in Eastern medicine to control diabetes, but it is a relatively new compound to Western medicine. Corosolic acid, the active ingredient in banaba extract, closely mimics insulin by stimulating much greater glucose and creatine phosphate transport into cells. It accomplishes this by translocating GLUT4, while preventing plasma insulin levels from rising. GLUT4 (glucose isoform 4) is a carrier protein that regulates the amount of glucose allowed into skeletal muscle cells. In some comparison studies with insulin, banaba actually performed with equal effectiveness as insulin at controlling blood sugar, mostly due to the muscular GLUT4 translocation. While corosolic acid has a mechanism of action similar to insulin, it does have a distinct advantage in that it is not an “equal opportunity” deposition agent, like insulin. Insulin does not discriminate the deposition of glucose, protein and creatine into your cells, whether they are muscle or fat cells,
