Medicinal plants used in Brazil Public Health System with neuroprotective potential: a systematic review

Current pharmacological therapies to treat neurological diseases are at best palliative and manage only the symptoms. Unfortunately, few therapies can affect diseases outcomes and alternative strategies such as stem cell therapy, neurotransplantation and deep brain stimulation are still in progress. Diseases such as Alzheimer's and Parkinson's disease become major public health challenge worldwide. In this way, the interest in the development of neuroprotective drugs of natural origin grows. Hence, this systematic review has quantified the studies that refer neuroprotective potential of plants listed in the Brazilian National List of Medicinal Plants of Interest to the Unified Health System (RENISUS). Searches were performed in two scientific databases (PubMed and Science Direct) from 2010 to 2016. A total of 4.532 articles met the inclusion criteria. 445 studies were considered eligible and were reviewed as full text. Following full analysis, 63 studies were included in this review. The studies covered 12 of the 71 plants belonging to RENISUS. In addition, two species are currently available in the Brazilian public health system as herbal medicine. This review may encourage and contribute to the proper use of medicinal plants in public health system.