Recent Advances in Synthetic α‐Glucosidase Inhibitors

Over the past few years, the number of people diagnosed with type 2 diabetes has increased owing to an unhealthy diet, a limited amount of exercise, and obesity. The search for novel and efficient antidiabetes agents has become an urgent task for scientists. Among the antidiabetes drugs, α‐glucosidase inhibitor drugs have been proven to have many advantages over other drugs, and therefore, a large number of new compounds as α‐glucosidase inhibitors has recently been reported. In this review, we summarize these newly found α‐glucosidase inhibitors and their structure–activity relationships in antidiabetic studies and provide better structures for α‐glucosidase inhibitors or even preclinical candidates. Beyond that, some enlightening strategies for the synthesis of relevant compounds are highlighted.