Natural Anticonvulsants: A Review

Epilepsy is a neurological disorder affecting a large scale of the population, which accounts for about 1% of the world's burden of diseases. A large number of agents called antiepileptic drugs are available to treat various types of seizures with the objective to reduce seizure frequency and severity within a framework of an acceptable level of side effects. There are number of drugs available for treatment of epilepsy in modern therapy. But the major disadvantage being faced is their chronic side effects. Treatment of epilepsy with herbal drugs as adjuvant seems to be more beneficial and is gaining more popularity due to their fewer side effects. Herbal drugs are acting at target site having same mechanism of action as that of synthetic drugs. There is still a need for new antiepileptic drugs (AEDs), may be derived from natural sources, as the clinical efficacy tolerability, toxicity properties of existing synthetic AEDs may not be satisfactory. This review focuses on the use of natural products for control of epilepsy.