Majallah-i Dānishgāh-i ̒Ulūm-i Pizishkī-i Bābul (Mar 2015)
Medicinal Herbs Effective in the Treatment of the Alzheimer’s Disease
Abstract
BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVE: Alzheimer’s is a progressive brain disorder which will gradually damage the memory, reduce learning and reasoning ability, impair judgement and communication and interfere with daily activities. As Alzheimer’s advances, patients may experience changes in their behaviour and personality. Such examples are anxiety, feelings of suspicion, consternation and delusional visions. Currently, there is no available treatment for this illness. Nevertheless, new approaches have extended horizons about the biology of this illness. Alzheimer’s is the most prevalent type of brain deterioration affecting over 20 million people across the world. In this article, we investigated the findings of previous control studies in order to determine whether medicinal herbs could be effective in treating cognitive disorders caused by this illness in the elderly. Furthermore, a few common medicinal herbs for treating Alzheimer’s have been looked into in this article. METHODS: In this study, we conducted investigations into the studies done on Alzheimer’s using databases such as Scopus, Web of Science, SID, Pumbed Central, Pumbed and a number of key words like Alzheimer’s, medicinal herbs, Acetylcholine and antioxidants. FINDINGS: The first neurotransmitter deficiency discovered in Alzheimer’s was Acetylcholine which is a cholinergic neurotransmitter necessary for the short-term memory. Cholinergic deficiency due to Alzheimer’s is mainly responsible for the problems of short-term memory. CONCLUSION: Undoubtedly, cholinesterase inhibitors and NMDA receptor antagonists are efficacious in treating Alzheimer’s. However, these treatments are unlikely to impede the illness and they tend to lose their effectiveness in the long run. The products of medicinal herbs are mostly used in treating the psychological and behavioural symptoms of Alzheimer’s.
