ABSTRACT
Alzheimer's disease （AD） is a common degenerative disease of the central nervous system in the elderly， with memory impairment and behavioral changes as the main clinical manifestations. Modern research has demonstrated that many herbs with both medicinal and edible values have anti-oxidation and anti-aging activities. In addition， these herbs are naturally safe and play a role in disease prevention and health care. The 110 medicinal and edible herbs announced by the National Health Commission of the People's Republic ofChina in 2021 were studied. The relevant papers published in the last five years were searched against CNKI， VIP， Wanfang Data， PubMed and other databases. The effects， mechanism， and active ingredients of the medicinal and edible herbs against Alzheimer's disease were summarized. The results showed that more than 30 herbs including Ginseng Radix et Rhizoma， Curcumae Longae Rhizoma， Astragali Radix， Corni Fructus， Gastrodiae Rhizoma， Angelicae Sinensis Radix， Cistanches Herba， Croci Stigma， Glycyrrhizae Radix et Rhizoma， Ganoderma and their active ingredients were effective in the prevention and treatment of Alzheimer's disease. Among them， ten herbs that met the requirements were screened out for analysis. The medicinal and edible herbs and their active ingredients can act on multiple targets and treat Alzheimer's disease via multiple signaling pathways such as nuclear factor-κB （NF-κB）， mitogen-activated protein kinase 5 （MEK5）/extracellular signal-regulated kinase 5 （ERK5）， cytochrome C （CytC） and cysteine aspartate-specific protease （Caspase）-3/（Caspase）-9， Wnt/β-catenin， and brain-derived neurotrophic factor （BDNF）/tyrosine kinase receptor B （TrkB）/phosphatidylinositol 3-kinase （PI3K）/protein kinase B （Akt）， thus improving learning， cognitive ability， and memory ability. Most of the medicinal and edible herbs have the tropism to the heart， spleen， liver， and kidney meridians and tonifying effect.