Nootropic Medicinal Plants: Therapeutic Alternatives for Alzheimer’s disease

Publication date: Available online 13 July 2019Source: Journal of Herbal MedicineAuthor(s): Swati Vyas, S.L. Kothari, Sumita KachhwahaAbstractWith the rise in the ageing population in the last few decades, dementia has emerged as a serious global health issue. Alzheimer's disease (AD) is the most common type of dementia. Despite extensive drug development research, only a limited number of FDA-approved drugs are available for AD. As these drugs provide symptomatic relief only and are frequently associated with adverse effects, there remains an urgent need for developing alternative approaches to AD therapeutics. Several medicinal plants are reported as nootropics that improve mental and cognitive functions via influencing different physiological pathways of the brain. In this regard, ethnopharmacological screening of medicinal plants is considered one of the major approaches. This review presents the alarming statistics of AD, currently prescribed drugs along with their limitations, therapeutic targets and synergetic strategies for AD drug development. Many studies have confirmed the employment of medicinal plants and their ethnopharmacological suitability as an alternative approach for research and development of AD therapeutics which are highlighted in this review. Moreover, this article addresses the importance of standardization and metabolite profiling of medicinal plants in the field of pharmacognosy. Also, the checkpoints of taking translational drug development from t...
Source: Journal of Herbal Medicine - Category: Complementary Medicine Source Type: research