Lead finding for acetyl cholinesterase inhibitors from natural origin: structure activity relationship and scope.

Acetylcholinesterase (AChE) inhibitors are considered as promising therapeutic agents for the treatment of several neurological disorders such as Alzheimer's disease (AD), senile dementia, ataxia and myasthenia gravis. There are only few synthetic medicines with adverse effects, available for treatment of cognitive dysfunction and memory loss associated with these diseases. A variety of plants has been reported to possess AChE inhibitory activity and so may be relevant to the treatment of neurodegenerative disorders such as AD. Hence, developing potential AChE inhibitors from botanicals is the need of the day. This review will cover some of the promising acetylcholinesterase inhibitors isolated from plants with proven in vitro and in vivo activities with concern to their structure activity relationship.