Title:Therapeutic Potential of Plant Extracts and Phytochemicals Against Brain Ischemia-Reperfusion Injury: A Review
Volume: 6
Issue: 4
Author(s): Jean Paul Kamdem, Amos Olalekan Abolaji, Olalekan Olusola Elekofehinti, Idowu Olaposi Omotuyi, Mohammad Ibrahim, Waseem Hassan, Nilda Vargas Barbosa, Diogo Onofre Souza and Joao Batista Teixeira da Rocha
Affiliation:
Keywords:
Brain ischemia/reperfusion, traditional medicine, ethnopharmacology, drug targets and neuroprotection.
Abstract: Brain ischemia-reperfusion injury is a complex pathological condition that involves a cascade
of events like excitotoxicity, peri-infarct depolarization, oxidative/nitrosative stress, inflammation,
apoptosis, necrosis and autophagic degeneration. Since the past decades, researchers have provided
significant information about the therapeutic potential and possible mechanism of action of
plant extracts and derived chemicals to target multiple pathways of the ischemic cascade. Here, we
summarized experimental, clinical and epidemiological therapeutic interventions of plants extracts
and phytochemicals against brain ischemia-reperfusion injury. Whether oxidative stress is the cause
or consequence of brain ischemia is open for debate but details about oxidative burden and inflammation
following brain ischemia are also described. Furthermore, the antioxidant mechanism of these extracts/
phytochemicals was reviewed. Although these plant extracts and phytochemicals showed the
ability to act on the multiple steps of the ischemic cascade in in vitro and in vivo models of brain ischemia,
further investigations are needed for their validation and for the development of new drugs.
