Bioactive Compounds and Herbal Therapy for Alzheimer's Disease

Aging is a natural biological phenomenon that comes with progressive and deleterious changes which makes the individual younger to older. Elderly people are frequently come across with many neurological disorders. Loss of neurons and synapses as a consequence of aging are the most important factors for neurodegenerative diseases. Among age-related neurodegenerative diseases Alzheimer's disease (AD) is the most prevalent one. It occurs due to aggregations of toxic proteins called amyloid-β plaques in the brain. Many ethno-pharmacologically important plants and plant products are used for their therapeutic properties to cure many diseases including neurodegenerative diseases. Bioactive compounds are the active ingredients extracted from biological sources which may have extra-nutritious values and therapeutic properties such as anti-inflammatory, anticancer, antioxidant, and anti-aging. Despite the beneficial pleiotropic effects of bioactive compounds and herbal products, they have also crucial role for neuroprotection. The manifestation of neuronal disorders particularly the age-associated diseases are more prevalence when the aging process is concomitant with other patho-physiological states such as inflammatory, hypertensive and oxidative stress conditions, and also due to genetic and many environmental factors. Although the causes of these diseases are not fully understood, the conditions may be influenced by synergistic effects of multifactorial states during elderly age. Based on these facts, the medicinal herbs and bioactive 40compounds having anti-aging and neuroprotective effects may be useful in a holistic approach for the treatment of age-associated diseases. However, this article targets to explore the wide range of plants, plant products and bioactive compounds for their neuroprotective properties and therapeutic values particularly for AD.