Presents the results of a study of 622 persons with diabetes mellitus attending 17 government health centres in Trinidad on the use of herbal remedies from medicinal plants. Concludes that such remedies were used by 42 percent of patients surveyed and were used by 24 percent for diabetes. Herbal medicine use ws more frequent in Afro-Trinidadians and in those of mixed ethnicity than in Indo-Trinidadians, and was also more prevalent in those with lower educational attainment. Eighty-one percent of persons using herbal medicine gathered the plants themselves, and 41 percent took them more frequently than once a week. Among the 12 most frequently used plants, caraila, aloes, olive bush and seed-under-leaf were preferentially used for diabetes.

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