Preclinical Studies on Some Essential Oils and Monoterpenes in the Treatment of Alzheimers Disease

Abstract

Neurodegenerative, neurological and psychiatric diseases are a group of pathologies with huge social and economic impact. Alzheimer s disease (AD) is the most common type of dementia which is age-associated neurodegenerative disorder. This neurodegenerative disorder of the brain is chronic and progressive and is represented by the deterioration in symptoms of the behavioral and cognitive abilities. There are limited number of drugs available for management of AD and most of these compounds are acetylcholinesterase inhibitors e.g. galantamine, rivastigmine, donepezil and NMDA receptor antagonist e.g. memantine. These drugs produces side-effects like dizziness, nausea, vomiting, anorexia and bronchoconstriction. So, there is a need for development of drugs based on multiple disease mechanisms for treatment or management of AD. An ethnopharmacological approach has provided leads to identify potential new drugs from plant sources, including those for memory disorders. newlineMedicinal plants have been reported for their neuroprotective effect in various disease pathways of AD by improving cognitive functions. Natural products like essential oils, alkaloids, flavonoids and terpenes are reported to have anticholinesterase, antioxidant and other relevant biological activities. There have been many scientific reports published, including preclinical and clinical studies of AD that showed beneficial effects from essential oils and monoterpenes. Essential oils as well as individual terpenes have been reported to posseses significant effects in modulating the Alzheimer s disease pathology through antioxidant, anticholinesterase, anti-amyloid, anti-inflammatory, anti-anxiety and nootropic activities. It has been reported that monoterpene-containing oils derived from plants are good for the memory.