Medicinal Plants Against Neurological Viral Diseases: Ethnopharmacology, Chemistry, and Clinical and Preclinical Studies

In the 6000 BC India, China, Africa, and Pre-Columbian America, especially the Aztecs and Incas, used herbal remedies for the treatment of neurological diseases. Nowadays traditional herbal medicines still play a major role in the treatment of neurological diseases. The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) treats herbal medicines as dietary supplements, not as medicines. Complementary and alternative medicines (CAM) are widely used to treat neurological conditions in most cultures. CAM therapy is a type of medical treatment that is not a fundamental component of Western conventional medicine, according to the National Institute of Health’s National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine (NIH-NCCAM). Herbal medicine is widely used and 80% of the population uses traditional medicines as a form of treatment. Herbal preparations used to treat neurological diseases are: Alcornia laxiflora, Acanthusmontanus, Ficus platyphila, Sutherlandia frutescens, Gladiolus delaney, Wokanga africana. According to Spanish historians, in the Americas, pre-Columbian cultures, especially the Incas and Aztecs, used over 1500 plants to treat neurological diseases. The plant species most commonly used to treat neurological diseases in the United States include Hypericum perforatum, Ginkgo biloba, Glycine max, Allium sativum, Piper methysticum, and Acterasemosa. Traditional Chinese medicine has a long history in Asia and has documented the use of herbal treatments to treat NCDs. Ginkgo biloba, Panax, Ganoderma lucidum, Salvia miltiorrhiza, Uncaria rhinophila, and Zingiber officinale are the most popular herbs. The world’s oldest medical text is “science of life” in Ayurveda, an Indian system of medicine that dates back to 4500–1500 BC. There are several herbal preparations discussed, along with the quantity of each ingredient and the production process. These drugs include Ficus carica, Achithesapena, Alstonia scolaris, Holanthenantidisenterica, and some mixtures of medicinal herbs. In this chapter all the plants and their ethnopharmacology and chemical constituents are discussed.