The effects of herbal medicine on epilepsy

// Wei Liu 1, * , Tongtong Ge 1, * , Zhenxiang Pan 1 , Yashu Leng 2 , Jiayin Lv 2 and Bingjin Li 1 1 Jilin Provincial Key Laboratory on Molecular and Chemical Genetic, The Second Hospital of Jilin University, Changchun 130041, PR China 2 Third Hospital of Jilin University, Changchun 130033, PR China * These authors contributed equally to this work Correspondence to: Bingjin Li, email: libingjin@jlu.edu.cn Keywords: herbal medicine, epilepsy, GABA, neuron, anticonvulsants Received: January 25, 2017      Accepted: March 22, 2017      Published: April 03, 2017 ABSTRACT Traditional herbal medicine plays a significant role in the treatment of epilepsy. Though herbal medicine is widely used in antiepileptic treatment, there is a lack of robust evidence for efficacy and toxicity of most herbs. Besides, the herbal medicine should be subject to evidence-based scrutiny. In this context, we present a review to introduce the effects of herbal medicine on epilepsy. However, hundreds of herbal medicines have been investigated in the available studies. Some commonly used herbal medicines for epilepsy have been listed in our study. The overwhelming majority of these data are based on animal experiments. The lack of clinical data places constraints on the clinical recommendation of herbal medicine. Our study may conduct further studies and provide some insight on the development of anti-epileptic drugs.