ABSTRACT
Alcohol is one of the most common beverages consumed in today’s society. Its vast popularity at various levels makes it one of the highest causes of driving fatalities, especially in the United States. Reports and statistics state that over 65 million people are struggling with alcoholism disorder. Alcoholism is a medical, social and economic problems where treatment methods mostly include difficult and long-lasting psychotherapy and in some cases, quite controversial pharmacological approaches. No medicine can ‘cure’ alcohol use disorder, but some can help you to recover. They can make drinking less enjoyable so you don’t want to do it as such; e.g., disulfiram, acamprosate, naltrexone, etc. But there are various side effects of synthetic drugs such as excessive use of acamprosate may results in abdominal pain, confusion, and increase urination. Naltrexone results stomach cramping, anxiety, etc. Excessive use of disulfiram shows polyneuritis, hepatitis, acneiform eruption, etc. The developments of alcoholism remedies have medical, social, and economical significance. In view of the adverse behavioral effects of synthetic drugs, the development of low toxicity and high efficiency medicines derived from natural products exhibits expansive market prospects. A 24number of medicinal plants and pure natural compounds are reported to have preventive and therapeutic effect on alcoholism and alcohol dependency, but their constituents, efficacy, and mechanism of action are mostly unknown so far. The reduction of alcohol absorption from the gastrointestinal system appears to be a common feature among most of the plants. The aim of this book chapter is to provide an overview of effective natural products for the prevention and treatment of chronic alcohol-use disorder.
