Abstract

BIOACTIVE COMPOUNDS WITH NEUROPHARMACOLOGICAL PROPERTIES FROM MEDICINAL PLANTS – A BRIEF REVIEW

B. Sathya*, K. Balamurugan and S. Anbazhagan

ABSTRACT

Bioactive compounds are a type of secondary plant metabolites eliciting pharmacological and toxicological effects in living organism. They are the chemical compounds found in plants and certain foods playing a potential role in human disease and treatment. They have been used in traditional medicine as plant extracts to prevent various maladies including neurological disorders, such as Alzheimer’s disease, anxiety, depression, seizures, parkinsonism, cerebrovascular impairment and others. Today’s stressful life style was predicted to be the major reason for the occurrence of these neurodegenerative diseases, predominantly. The unique properties of various bioactive compounds including alkaloids, steroids, terpenoids, saponins, phenolics and flavonoids, alarmed the attention of researchers towards the phytocompounds in the therapeutics of neurological disorders. By their interaction with receptors of central nervous system, bioactive compounds are believed to modulate the pharmacology of several signaling pathways in brain thereby contributing to the cure of a disease. This review presents a study of some important bioactive compounds possessing higher therapeutic efficacy against neurodegenerative diseases and provides a source to identify potential target plants for future studies.

Keywords: Bioactive compounds, Flavonoids, Neurodegenerative diseases, Anxiety, Depression.