title: Promising therapeutics with natural bioactive compounds for improving learning and memory--a review of randomized trials.
abstract: Cognitive disorders can be associated with brain trauma, neurodegenerative disease or as a part of physiological aging. Aging in humans is generally associated with deterioration of cognitive performance and, in particular, learning and memory. Different therapeutic approaches are available to treat cognitive impairment during physiological aging and neurodegenerative or psychiatric disorders. Traditional herbal medicine and numerous plants, either directly as supplements or indirectly in the form of food, improve brain functions including memory and attention. More than a hundred herbal medicinal plants have been traditionally used for learning and memory improvement, but only a few have been tested in randomized clinical trials. Here, we will enumerate those medicinal plants that show positive effects on various cognitive functions in learning and memory clinical trials. Moreover, besides natural products that show promising effects in clinical trials, we briefly discuss medicinal plants that have promising experimental data or initial clinical data and might have potential to reach a clinical trial in the near future.
authors.affiliation: Department of Biotechnology, Konkuk University, Chungju 380-701, Korea.
authors.forename: Hemant
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Kumar
authors.forename: Sandeep Vasant
authors.initials: SV
authors.lastname: More
authors.forename: Sang-Don
authors.initials: SD
authors.lastname: Han
authors.forename: Jin-Yong
authors.initials: JY
authors.lastname: Choi
authors.forename: Dong-Kug
authors.initials: DK
authors.lastname: Choi
mesh_terms: D003072:Cognition Disorders / Q000188:drug therapy*; D006801:Humans; D007858:Learning / Q000187:drug effects*; D008568:Memory / Q000187:drug effects*; D019636:Neurodegenerative Diseases / Q000188:drug therapy; D018697:Nootropic Agents / Q000494:pharmacology* / Q000627:therapeutic use; D008517:Phytotherapy; D010936:Plant Extracts / Q000737:chemistry / Q000494:pharmacology*; D010946:Plants, Medicinal; D016032:Randomized Controlled Trials as Topic
chemical_list: D018697:Nootropic Agents; D010936:Plant Extracts