Ashwagandha for brain health: Experimental evidence for its neuroregenerative activities

Abstract

Rapidly growing population, social and environmental factors are continuously exerting impact on social and psychological human health in multiple ways. In particular, these factors cause cumulative stress affecting cognitive functions and elevate risks of diverse neuronal dysfunction and malignant brain diseases. Maintenance of brain health has hence emerged as a new challenge in increasing old age populations worldwide. Use of herbal drug constituents has emerged as a preferred choice due to enormous undesirable side effects of pharmacological drugs. Ashwagandha, a sub-tropical medicinal plant has been extensively used in Indian traditional home medicine system i.e. called "Ayurveda" for its stress-, hypertension-, aging-, neurological dysfunction- and malignant growth-inhibitory properties. Detailed molecular insights of these activities and mechanism(s) are only beginning to be demonstrated by laboratory studies. In this chapter, we attempt to sketch research evidence of the benefits of Ashwagandha bioactives for brain health.