In metabolic regulation, palmatine restores glucose and lipid homeostasis via the AMP-activated protein kinase (AMPK)/mTOR and insulin receptor substrate 1 (IRS1)/RAC-β serine/threonine-protein kinase (AKT2)/forkhead box protein O1 (FOXO1)/glucose transporter type 2 (GLUT2) pathways (Chen et al., 2021; Lin et al., 2022; Nwabueze et al., 2022; Xia et al., 2022), providing a mechanistic explanation for its traditional use in metabolic disorders such as diabetes. The gene discussed is IRS1; the disease is metabolic disease.