Alkaloids Pharmacological Activities - Prospects for the Development of Phytopharmaceuticals for Neurodegenerative Diseases

The study of natural substances has increased in recent years in the search for compounds with pharmacological properties that can be used for the development of new drugs. The alkaloids, substances extracted natural sources, show promising pharmacological activities, including pharmacological activities for the treatment of neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer's disease, whose treatment is based on the use of various drugs. Thus, the article aims to a technological prospecting of alkaloids that presented important properties in the treatment of neurodegenerative diseases, namely, antioxidant, anxiolytic, anti-inflammatory and antidepressant properties. A literature review was conducted in the databases PubMed, Science Direct, Scopus, Scielo and Google Academics using the following key words: alkaloids, pharmacology, neurodegenerative diseases, cholinesterase inhibitors, antidepressants, anti-inflammatories, antioxidant and anxiolytic. Articles, dissertations and theses published between 2003 and 2015 were selected. Several studies showed through in vitro of in vitro and/or in vivo methods that many alkaloids extracted from plants showed anticholinesterase, antioxidant, anxiolytic, anti-inflammatory and antidepressant properties in the treatment of symptoms and progression of certain diseases such as Alzheimer's disease.