Roughly half of the western medicines used today were derived from naturally occurring plant metabolites. Plants produce over 200,000 of these specialized metabolites, but identifying medicinally useful ones is challenging, and obtaining sufficient quantities for human use poses an even greater challenge. Type-2 diabetes, a disease characterized by elevated blood glucose levels due to the body’s inefficient use of insulin, affects over 320 million people worldwide. Drugs that are commonly used to treat type-2 diabetes reduce blood glucose levels by inhibiting the activities of two enzymes: HPA (pancreatic alpha-amylase), which cleaves complex starches into strings of sugar molecules called oligosaccharides and alpha-glucosidases, which convert oligosaccharides into glucose in the gut. Unfortunately, the inhibition of alpha-glucosidases causes some undigested oligosaccharides to move into the lower bowel, leading to flatulence and diarrhea.