Traditional Chinese medicinal herbs as potential AChE inhibitors for anti-Alzheimer's disease: A review

Alzheimer's disease (AD) is a progressive neurodegenerative disease affecting 25 million people worldwide, and cholinergic hypothesis is considered as an important hypotheses in the processes of improving cognitive function and recognition skills in recent years. For the long-term treatment of AD, traditional Chinese medicine are particularly suitable for drug discovery. In this review, we sum up six traditional Chinese medicinal herbs concerned with development of AChEIs, including Herba Epimedii, Coptis Chinensis Franch, Rhizoma Curcumae Longae, Green tea, Ganoderma, Panax Ginseng. The listed compounds based on these herbs are belonging to six classes Flavonoids, Alkaloids, Ketones, Polyphenols, Terpenoid and Saponins, respectively. These compounds could be very promising agents in the search for potent anti-Alzheimer's drugs. (C) 2017 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.