Potential Medicinal Plants Used in the Treatment of Alzheimer’s Disease

Alzheimer’s disease is a progressive and chronic neurodegenerative disease of the brain and is the disease with the most involvement in dementia, with 50 million patients in the world. The following medications have been used to treat AD symptoms: galantamine, donepezil, rivastigmine, physostigmine (eserine), tacrine, and huperzine A. Their main method of action is AChE suppression to minimize the cholinergic deficit. The use of FDA-approved these drugs in treatment is aimed at short-term relief of symptoms rather than regressing the course of the disease. While FDA-approved anti-AD drugs are effective in treating symptoms, they also have some drawbacks and side effects, including nausea, vomiting, headache, dizziness, loss of appetite, weight loss, diarrhea, and many other effects.
The discovery of new, effective and reliable drugs for use in the treatment of AD is among the biggest goals of scientific research groups. Medicinal plants and the phytochemical compounds they contain; polyphenolics, flavonoids, alkaloids, saponins, phenolic acids and many other compounds can play an active role in the inhibition of AD disease. Phytochemicals have long been used as therapy alternatives for a range of pathological illnesses. Many phytochemicals have their mechanisms well-established; but, for some, it remains to be determined how much of them need be present in food to be bioavailable. Ethanol and aqueous extracts of traditional medicinal plants used in the Mediterranean region are being studied for the inhibition of the acetylcholinesterase enzyme, which is effective in the innervation of the nervous system.