Status Analysis of Herbal Drug Therapies in Epilepsy: Advancements in the Use of Medicinal Plants with Anti-inflammatory Properties

Abstract

Background: The use of plants and plant products in health care has shown an exponential increase in the past two decades.

Introduction: In-spite of the availability of well-established pharmacotherapy for epilepsy, a large no of the population still explores alternative treatments due to refractory seizures, adverse effects of drugs, chronic treatment, inaccessibility of standard therapies in rural areas and the social stigma attached to the disease. Various studies on medicinal plants showed the protective effect of herbals in animal models of epilepsy.

Methods: In the present review, a status analysis of the traditional use of various medicinal plants in epilepsy with a special focus on plats having anti-inflammatory potential is recorded.

Result and conclusion: The shortcomings of research on medicinal plants which need to be explored further in order to tackle the growing need for safer and effective drugs for epilepsy are discussed. Overall, there is a huge scope of herbal drugs in CNS disorders, especially epilepsy, either as an adjunct by reducing the dose and thus side effects of standard anti-epileptic drugs or as a standalone agent. Although, there is still an urgent need of well planned randomized controlled clinical trials to validate their efficacy and safety.

Keywords: CNS activity; Epilepsy; anti-inflammatory; herb-drug interaction; herbal drugs; medicinal plants.