Abstract
Alzheimer’s disease (AD), is the most common type of dementia primarily affecting the later years of life. Its prevalence is likely to increase in any aging population and will be a major burden on healthcare system by the mid of the century. Despite scientific and technological breakthroughs in the last 50 years, that have expanded our understanding of the disease on a system, cellular and molecular level, therapies that could stop or slow the progression of the disease are still unavailable. The Food and Drug Administration (FDA), has approved acetylcholinesterase (AChE) inhibitors (donepezil, galantamine, tacrine and rivastigmine) and glutamate receptor antagonist (memantine) for the treatment of AD. In this review we summarize the studies reporting phytocompounds and extracts from medicinal plants that show AChE inhibitory activities and could be of potential benefit in AD. Future research directions are suggested and recommendations made to expand the use of medicinal plants and their formulations to prevent, mitigate and treat AD.
•FDA has approved three cholinesterase inhibitors (ChEIs) for Alzheimer’s treatment.•Current ChEIs are frequently associated with weight loss, anorexia, bradycardia.•Phytocompounds can become the next generation ChEIs with fewer adverse effects.•Structural modifications may result in improved efficacy & reduced adverse effects.•Analogue designing and derivatization will lead to safer and potent phytocompounds.