Comprehensive Review of Ethnopharmacological and Phytochemical Aspects of Nutraceuticals in Psychiatric Disorders

Ageing comes with degeneration in many biological activities like impairment of cognition, intelligence, attention, and memory. The decline in all those mental capabilities would be due to the abnormal changes in neuronal architecture with increasing age, chronic oxidative stress, inflammatory state of the tissue, and nutritional deficiency. Nootropics or smart drugs enhance memory, attention, creativity, and cognitive performance by affecting the synthesis and receptor binding of neurotransmitters in the brain, especially dopamine, serotonin, gamma-aminobutyric acid, glutamate, and acetylcholine. Nootropics have shown their positive effects in Parkinson’s, autism, Alzheimer’s, and Huntington's disease, where impaired memory is the primary concern. The synthetic class of nootropics has limitations and reported exacerbation of other brain disorders (off label effects) or therapeutic failure in some instances. Nutraceuticals are dietary derived vitamins, minerals, herbal products, proteins, marine products, and probiotics. The health benefits derived from nutraceuticals are increased brain blood flow, reduced inflammation in nervous tissues, detoxified toxins from the brain, balanced neurotransmitter turnover rate, corrected neuronal and receptor damages and prompt synaptic transmission, good antioxidant properties and power of improving neuroplasticity of the brain that combats neurodegeneration. The demand for effective nootropics will remain high as the number of cases is being increased tremendously.