Research on the mechanism and application of plant essential oils in improving Alzheimer’s disease

Abstract

Alzheimer’s disease (AD) is a neurodegenerative disease, mainly caused by brain cell aging, impaired autophagy function, and reduction of nicotinic acetylcholine receptors. Amyloid-β (Aβ) peptide aggregation and Tau protein hyperphosphorylation, as well as memory impairment and cognitive dysfunction, are hallmarks of the disease. Clinical current traditional anti-AD drugs have shortcomings such as ineffective efficacy and large side effects. Therefore, the research of new effective therapeutic drugs has a very broad space for development and value significance. Plant essential oil (EO) has very obvious advantages in the treatment of neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer’s disease. Because of their lipophilicity, small molecular weight, easy to cross the blood-brain barrier (BBB), and rich active ingredients, they have significant effects on regulating AD-related neurotransmitters and hormone release, and regulating the expression of brain-derived neurotrophic factors and pro-inflammatory cytokines. This article describes the pathogenesis of AD, summarizes recent studies on the anti-Alzheimer’s disease effects and mechanisms of essential oils, and provides a review of therapeutic AD chemical constituents in plant essential oils. The article provides a theoretical basis for research on plant essential oils for alleviating and treating Alzheimer’s disease.