Chinese Medicines in Neurological Diseases: Pharmacological Perspective

Neurological diseases are a wide range of diseases affecting central and peripheral nervous system. Stroke, Alzheimer’s disease (AD), and Parkinson’s disease (PD) are the most common and challenging neurological diseases which lack effective treatment. Chinese medicine (CM) is an ancient yet still alive medical system widely used by Asian people for preventing and treating diseases. The symptoms of stroke, AD, and PD have been described in CM books as early as 2000 years ago. The causes as well as the treatment principles for these diseases are also mentioned in the classic CM books. According to CM theory, the diseases are caused by disharmony of Yin and Yang, thus the treatment strategy is to restore the balance. Throughout the CM history, the etiology and therapy for stroke, AD, and PD have been continuously developed. Currently, Up to 20–40 % of patients with above-mentioned diseases are receiving CM treatment in China, indicating the wide acceptance of CM for the treatment of neurological diseases (Liu in J Am Med Dir Assoc, 2015 [1]; Rajendran et al. in Neurology 57:790–4, 2001 [2]). The widely used formulas for neurological disease treatment include: “Qi Fu Decoction”, and “Tongqiao Huoxue Decoction” for Dementia; “Zhengan Xifeng Decoction”, “Angong Niuhuang Wan” “Tongqiao Huoxue decoction”, “Taohong Siwu Decoction” for Stroke; “Zhengan Xifeng Decoction”, “Lingjiao Gouteng Decoction”, “Dao Tan Decoction”, “Renshen Yangrong Decoction”, and “Dihuang Yinzi Decoction” for PD. Numerous studies have reported the efficacy of CM in the clinic treatment of stroke, AD, and PD. However, most of the clinical studies lack the experimental supports from diseases models and the reports were mainly written in Chinese, thus limiting the recognition of CM by worldwide researchers. With the modernization of CM during the past decades, the experimental data of CM-originated materials (formula, herb extract, and single compounds) on the stroke, AD, and PD models are accumulating rapidly, providing important scientific evidence for the clinic use of CM for treating neurological diseases. This chapter introduces the basic theory of CM for treating stroke, AD, and PD, lists the currently used experimental diseases models for the evaluation of pharmacological activity of CM, and summarizes the CM-originated materials with protective effects in these disease models.