Emerging Role of Plant-Based Bioactive Compounds as Therapeutics in Parkinson’s Disease

Abstract

Neurological ailments, including stroke, Alzheimer’s disease (AD), epilepsy, Parkinson’s disease (PD), and other related diseases, have affected around 1 billion people globally to date. PD stands second among the common neurodegenerative diseases caused as a result of dopaminergic neuron loss in the midbrain’s substantia nigra regions. It affects cognitive and motor activities, resulting in tremors during rest, slow movement, and muscle stiffness. There are various traditional approaches for the management of PD, but they provide only symptomatic relief. Thus, a survey for finding new biomolecules or substances exhibiting the therapeutic potential to patients with PD is the main focus of present-day research. Medicinal plants, herbal formulations, and natural bioactive molecules have been gaining much more attention in recent years as synthetic molecules orchestrate a number of undesired effects. Several in vitro, in vivo, and in silico studies in the recent past have demonstrated the therapeutic potential of medicinal plants, herbal formulations, and plant-based bioactives. Among the plant-based bioactives, polyphenols, terpenes, and alkaloids are of particular interest due to their potent anti-inflammatory, antioxidant, and brain-health-promoting properties. Further, there are no concise, elaborated articles comprising updated mechanism-of-action-based reviews of the published literature on potent, recently investigated (2019–2023) medicinal plants, herbal formulations, and plant based-bioactive molecules, including polyphenols, terpenes, and alkaloids, as a method for the management of PD. Therefore, we designed the current review to provide an illustration of the efficacious role of various medicinal plants, herbal formulations, and bioactives (polyphenols, terpenes, and alkaloids) that can become potential therapeutics against PD with greater specificity, target approachability, bioavailability, and safety to the host. This information can be further utilized in the future to develop several value-added formulations and nutraceutical products to achieve the desired safety and efficacy for the management of PD.