Citrus: A Perspective for Developing Phytomedicines for Neurodegenerative Diseases

Abstract

The antioxidant and anti-inflammatory properties of Citrus flavonoids can play a key role in their activity against several degenerative diseases and particularly brain diseases. In Brazil promising studies deposited in the patents "pharmaceutical formulation" form was obtained from the inclusion of Citrus sinensis L. (orange) essential oil with β-cyclodextrin and Citrus limon (lemon) compounds and their applications in therapy of Alzheimer's disease. In this chapter, we report activities of active compounds present in the genus Citrus, which include antioxidant, anti-inflammatory, anxiolytic, insecticidal, and anticholinesterase activities. These activities are associated with some neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer's disease (AD). Pharmaceutical formulations containing such compounds (for example, inhibitors such as acetylcholinesterase (AChE) of C. limon (5,8-dimethoxy-psoralen and 5,7-dimethoxycumarin) and essential oil from C. sinensis oils are reported in this chapter. These results indicate that the effects of the essential oil and substances of Citrus species are very interesting for further isolation of AChE inhibitors that can be used in the formulation of natural products for neurodegenerative diseases.

Expanding Knowledge about the Influence of Citral on Cognitive Functions—In Vitro, In Vivo and Ex Vivo Studies

“…An example of which is the extract from leaves of C. limon that revealed in vitro and in vivo (Swiss mice) activity towards enzyme inhibition (approx. 30%), in comparison to neostigmine [28].…”

“…According to available literature data, citral not only does not cause oxidative damages in cells, but it also has protective properties against the effects of ROS [26,27]. This phenomenon is crucial and allows citral to be considered as a promising agent for counteracting and treating neurodegeneration [28].…”

Effect of citronellol on oxidative stress, neuroinflammation and autophagy pathways in an in vivo model of Parkinson's disease

“…The chemical structure of Citronellol is shown in Figure 2 . Neuroprotective activities such as inhibition of acetylcholine esterase activity, anti-inflammatory and anti-oxidative properties of various compounds isolated from genus citrus have been reported recently [ 29 ]. However, knowledge on the effects of citronellol against PD mechanisms is still scarce.…”