Portulaca oleracea L., commonly known as purslane, is a worldwide weed species belonging to the family Portulacaceae and has been known as “Global Panacea”. As one of the most widely consumed green vegetable and medicinal plants around the world, it has recently been re-evaluated as a potential “new crop” due to the properties that differentiate it as one of the best vegetable sources of omega-3 fatty acid (α-linolenic acid), as well as a variety of nutrients and phytochemicals. Accordingly, emerging research has found that purslane exhibits health-promoting properties like anti-inflammatory, anti-hyperglycemic, antioxidant, neuroprotective, and immunomodulatory. These findings suggest that this species possesses a potential using as a dietary supplement beyond potherb and traditional medicine. This review systematically summarizes the up-to-date research carried out on purslane, which includes the nutritional compositions, bioactive compounds, and health benefits it exerts as well as limitations, challenges, and future directions of research. Finally, we hope that this review would provide purslane with a comprehensive reference and future scope as functional and health-promoting food for disease prevention and treatment.

Diabetes mellitus (DM) is a metabolic disorder disease, and the number of diabetic patients will reach 578 million by 2030 predictably. Currently, 8 classes of small molecular drugs are used for treating diabetes. However, these drugs cannot completely meet patients' needs, due to diabetic complications need to be addressed along with diabetes, such as nephropathy, and cardiovascular diseases. Besides, more types of drugs need to be provided for more choices. Hence, scientists still seek lead compounds with hypoglycemic effects. Natural products (NPs) are a reservoir of diverse structures and bioactivities with low toxicity and less side effects. And some of them show effects on diabetic complications, which is a significant idea for drug development. This review aims to summarize natural products with hypoglycemic effects and their details, such as potential mechanisms, biological data, and particularly their advantages in treating diabetes. Considering the huge number of NPs was reported with anti-diabetic activity, and some of them need to be re-validated, this review focuses on the bioactive compounds with in vivo activities. In the end, the trend of natural products treating diabetes was discussed. We hope this review provide a comprehensive and convincing summary, thus lending support to anti-diabetic natural products research.