Botanical and fungal resources for improving cognitive health

Botanicals and fungi have played a foundational role in human health care, serving as the primary source of therapeutics in ancient medical systems. With the rise of modern chemistry in the 18th and 19th centuries, the isolation of active plant compounds, such as morphine from opium poppy, quinine from cinchona bark and digoxin from foxglove, established botanicals as the basis for many modern pharmaceuticals and laid the groundwork for natural products drug discovery. Today, renewed scientific interest in botanicals reflects their complex, multi-compound nature and ability to act on multiple biological pathways, particularly in chronic and multifactorial conditions like cognitive decline.

This talk, given by Jeffrey Langland, research director at the Ric Scalzo Institute for Botanical Research, will discuss the characterization of botanical/fungi extracts and their effect on neuronal gene expression, inflammation, antioxidant activity and potential active constituents.

This lecture is part of the ASU-Banner Neurodegenerative Disease Research Center Director's Lecture Series.