Europe PMC · 2026-03-25
A systematic review finds that medicinal plants used in traditional Chinese medicine show theoretical promise for treating Parkinson's disease by activating the brain's cellular 'self-cleaning' process, but warns that most evidence comes from lab studies rather than rigorous human trials, and that the common assumption of herbal safety is not well-supported.
Medicinal plant compounds simultaneously modulate multiple autophagy-related pathways, giving them a theoretical advantage over single-target Parkinson's drugs — but this broad activity also raises unresolved concerns about target specificity and off-target effects.
The common assumption that traditional herbal remedies are inherently safer than pharmaceutical drugs is not well-founded: many plant constituents exhibit dose-dependent toxicity, and rigorous long-term safety trials are largely absent.
Current evidence for medicinal plants as Parkinson's treatments comes almost entirely from in vitro and in vivo basic research or observational studies; randomized controlled clinical trials validating real-world efficacy remain scarce.