Background: Migraine may be described as a headache with moderate to extreme pain that is often accompanied by incapacitating neurological symptoms. It is estimated that 12% of the world population suffers from migraine. Although a number of drugs have been used for treatment of migraine, most of these are not effective for every patient and may have undesirable side-effects. Thus, there is an enormous unmet need in current migraine therapy for discovering safer and more effective agents.

Methods: The information summarized in this review was obtained through extensive literature review and search of relevant books and articles with the use of Web of Knowledge and SciVerse Scopus databases.

Results: Greater understanding of the molecular mechanisms underlying the etiopathogenesis of migraine is helpful in identifying novel targets for antimigraine drugs such as cannabinoid, histamine, and melatonin receptors. In the past, natural product-derived constituents have served as an invaluable source of numerous medicinally useful antimigraine agents and it may be expected that further promising drug candidates from natural products will be discovered for antimigraine pharmacotherapy with better efficacy and fewer adverse-effects.

Conclusion: The discovery of novel targets in migraine therapy has opened new horizons for compounds that have not been clinically tested or that previously failed in clinical trials as potential antimigraine drugs. Ginkgolide B, melatonin, histamine, oxytocin, various ribosomal peptide toxins, kavalactones, devil’s claw-derived compounds, salvinorin A and petasin are among those agents that show considerable promise as novel drugs in migraine prevention and treatment. It is necessary to conduct more research to better understand their antimigraine action, to confirm their effectiveness and safety, and to introduce them into clinical practice.

背景：偏头痛可被描述为具有中度至极度疼痛的头痛，并常伴有神经功能丧失症状。据估计，世界人口的12％患有偏头痛。尽管许多药物已用于治疗偏头痛，但大多数药物并非对每位患者均有效，并且可能会产生不良副作用。因此，在当前的偏头痛治疗中，发现更安全，更有效的药物存在巨大的需求缺口。

方法：本综述中的信息是通过广泛的文献综述以及使用Web of Knowledge和SciVerse Scopus数据库搜索相关书籍和文章而获得的。

结果：深入了解偏头痛病因的分子机制有助于确定抗偏头痛药物的新靶标，例如大麻素，组胺和褪黑激素受体。过去，天然产物来源的成分已成为许多医学上有用的抗偏头痛药物的宝贵来源，并且可以预期将从天然产物中获得更多有希望的候选药物用于抗偏头痛药物治疗，其疗效更高且不良反应更少。

结论：偏头痛治疗中新靶标的发现为尚未经过临床测试或先前作为潜在的偏头痛药物在临床试验中失败的化合物开辟了新视野。银杏内酯B，褪黑激素，组胺，催产素，各种核糖体肽毒素，kavalactones，魔爪衍生的化合物，salvinorin A和petasin都是在偏头痛预防和治疗中显示出新希望的药物。有必要进行更多的研究，以更好地了解其抗偏头痛的作用，确认其有效性和安全性，并将其引入临床实践。