Objectives The effects of total saponins of Aralia elata combined with yeast selenium on reducing the blood sugar in type 2 diabetic (C57) mice were studied to provide a reference for the development of new drugs for the treatment of diabetes. Methods 10 of 60 type 2 diabetic (C57) mice selected were used as the control group (Group A), and the rest were used to establish diabetes model with 30 mg/kg streptozotocin as the experimental group. The mice were randomly divided into groups B, C, D, E, and F after successful modeling, namely the model group, metformin group, total saponins of Aralia elata +yeast selenium (120 mg/kg +1.5 mg/kg) group, total saponins of Aralia elata +yeast selenium (120 mg/kg +1.0 mg/kg) group and total saponins of Aralia elata+yeast selenium (120 mg/kg+0.5 mg/kg) group, with 10 C57 mice in each group, and treated continuously for 4 weeks. The blood glucose meter, fully automatic glycated hemoglobin analyzer, and fully automatic biochemical analyzer were used to measure the content of fasting blood glucose (FBG), glycated hemoglobin, blood lipids, and oral glucose tolerance in the blood of tail vein in C57 mice. Results Each experimental group had varying degrees of changes compared with group B, with group C and group D outperforming the other groups, and the difference between the two groups was not significant. In group D, the content of FBG, HbA1c, TC, TG and LDL decreased by 4.86 mmol/L, 3.87%, 1.18, 0.02, 1.72 mmol/L, while the content of HDL significantly increased by 0.42 mmol/L. The Oral glucose tolerance testing restored to pre-meal levels within 2 hours. Conclusions The combination of 120 mg/kg total saponins of Aralia elata and 1.5 mg/kg yeast selenium had the best effect.