A Review on Antidepressant Effects Medicinal Plants with Emphasis on their Mechanisms of Action

Depression is a serious, debilitating and common illness among various social groups. Chemical and synthetic drugs available for the disease have numerous side effects and result only around a 50% full recovery.
Today, researchers are trying to find new and affordable drugs without serious side effects. Medicinal plants showed considerable pharmacological effects in the treatment of depression in different experimental models.
In this study, articles from journals indexed in the Scopus, PubMed, Information Sciences Institute (ISI), and Scientific Information Database (SID) were reviewed.
A review of studies in this field showed that most medicinal plants show anti-depressant effects through regulating of the synaptic serotonin and dopamine, regulation of the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis activity, strengthening of the body's antioxidant defenses and reducing of the inflammatory mediators.
medicinal plant and their component show protective effect against depression through different mechanism. Medicinal plants can be used as a new source for the development of anti-depressant drugs.