PHARMACOLOGICAL EFFECTS OF ASHWAGANDHA ON NEURODEGENERATIVE DISEASES: AN OVERVIEW

Priti Yadav*, Amit K. Srivastava, Amresh Gupta, Neelam Verma and Pritt Verma

ABSTRACT

Neurodegenerative diseases affect various activities of your body, such as balance, movement, talking, breathing, and heart functions which may leads a serious problem for your health. There are some of these diseases are genetic and sometimes caused by a medical condition such as alcoholism, a tumor, or a stroke, toxins, chemicals, and viruses. Sometimes unknown causes may lead neurodegenerative diseases. Alzheimer’s disease (AD) is an irreversible neurodegenerative disorder which can produce various neurological symptoms like mental confusion, loss of memory, and mood swings resulting in permanent functional impairments. Withania somnifera which is also known as 'Ashwagandha' and 'Indian Winter Cherry', is an important medicinal herb in India which is widely used in Indian systems of medicine as an, nerve tonic, anti-stress, memory enhancer and against cognitive deficits and other neurological disorders. In this review, we focused on the various effects of Withania extracts and other withania related compounds on in vitro and in vivo models of neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer’s disease.

Keywords: Neurodegenerative, alcoholism, tumor, toxins, Alzheimer’s disease (AD), impairments, Withania somnifera.