Diabetes mellitus being a chronic endocrine disorder has become a major health care problem since the last couple of decades because of the intensive lifestyle intervention. Antioxidants have become a crucial part of our lives for maintaining optimal cellular and systemic health and wellbeing. There is an increased interest in the food industry and preventive medicine in the development of natural antioxidants from plant material. This review deals with medicinal plants with antioxidant and antidiabetic properties used in the traditional Indian system of medicine; also a briefing of their in vitro models for evaluating antioxidant and antidiabetic activity has been conducted.