Herbal drugs an alternative medicine for the treatment of neurodegenerative diseases: Preclinical and clinical trial review

Failure to treat the neurodegenerative diseases by current Allopathic medicines gives insight to use alternative medicines for the treatment of Neurodegenerative disorders. Herbal medicines have been widely used around the world in many cultures to treat diseases. The advancement in the science and scientific tools enabled us to explore the phytochemicals around the world for the efficacy, potencies for the treatment of various diseases. Most of the herbal drugs have biologically active constituents such as flavonoids, tannins, and terpenoids, are highly soluble in water and have anti-oxidant and anti-inflammatory properties. This chapter will discuss various herbal drugs used for the treatment of Neurodegenerative diseases and what are the properties they possess to be an excellent candidate to be marketed for the treatment. These herbal drugs, when combined with other active principle ingredients might have more efficacy for treatment of neurological disorders. The chapter also presents research on different herbals through liposomes, polymeric nanoparticles or other means of delivery. A broad spectrum of herbal drugs is discussed with the help of various online databases, including PubMed, Science Direct, references from relevant review articles, and other official publications. Moreover, conventional treatments fail to treat neurological disorders and the purpose of this study is to review alternative drug systems and herbal medicines for the treatment of neurodegenerative disorders.