Novel Leads from Herbal Drugs for Neurodegenerative Diseases
This article summarizes the salient features of new therapeutic leads from herbal sources for various types of neurodegenerative diseases. Efforts made in using existing knowledge on several popular medicinal plants, particularly those utilized in the Ind
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Novel Leads from Herbal Drugs for Neurodegenerative Diseases Maheep Bhatnagar
Abstract This article summarizes the salient features of new therapeutic leads from herbal sources for various types of neurodegenerative diseases. Efforts made in using existing knowledge on several popular medicinal plants, particularly those utilized in the Indian traditional medicinal and Ayurvedic system discussed in light of recent research. A few promising plants such as Asparagus racemosus, Bacopa monnieri, Centella asiatica, and Mucuna pruriens are worth exploring for drug development for neuroprotection. Keywords Medicinal plants, Neurodegeneration, Neuroprotection, Neurodegenerative diseases
14.1 Introduction Herbal medicines are being used by about 80% of the world’s population, primarily in the developing countries, for primary healthcare, because of its better cultural acceptability, better compatibility with the human body, and lesser side effects. According to the World Health Organization’s (WHO) definition traditional medicine comprises therapeutic practices that have been in existence, often for hundreds of years, before the development and spread of modern systems of medicine and are still in use. Herbal drugs constitute only those traditional medicines that primarily use medicinal plant preparations for therapy. The earliest recorded evidence of their use in Indian, Chinese, Egyptian, Greek, Roman, and Syrian texts, dates back about 5000 years ago. However, the last few years have witnessed a significant increase in their use in the developed world. India, China, and other neighboring countries have well founded traditional systems of medicines where plant based therapeutic agents occupy an important niche in health management.
M. Bhatnagar (B) Animal Biotechnology and Neuroscience Laboratory, Department of Zoology, M.L. Sukhadia University, Udaipur-313001, India e-mail: [email protected], [email protected]
K.G. Ramawat (ed.), Herbal Drugs: Ethnomedicine to Modern Medicine, c Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2009 DOI 10.1007/978-3-540-79116-4 14,
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M. Bhatnagar
The traditional use of herbal preparations existed in Indian medicinal systems long before their usefulness was accepted in modern scientific approaches to healthcare. Even today in the majority of rural and urban areas in India, as well as in several other parts of world, traditional herbal health-care is practiced. According to one estimate, herbal products now constitute a major portion −20% of international pharmaceutical industry. About 1500 to 1800 products are sold in US markets alone [1]. Although a large number of scientific studies have been conducted in India and world wide on medicinal plants, traditionally proven herbal preparations/formulations do not yet fully conform to standards of drug testing, safety, and efficacy. Though opportunities for developing traditional preparations as drugs with international acceptance are enormous, there is hardly any intensive effort in this direction at the government or industry level in I
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