Medicinal plants and their extracts are natural remedies with enormous potential for treating various diseases, including depression and anxiety. In the case of depression, hundreds of plants have traditionally been used in folk medicine for generations. Different plant extracts and natural products have been analyzed as potential antidepressant agents with validated models to test for antidepressant-like effects in animals, although other complementary studies have also been employed. Most of these studies focus on the possible mediators implicated in these potential effects, with dopamine, serotonin, and noradrenaline being the principal neurotransmitters implicated, both through interference with receptors and with their metabolism by monoamino oxidases, as well as through neuro-endocrine and neuroprotective effects. There are approximately 650 reports of antidepressant-like medicinal plants in PubMed; 155 of them have been compiled in this review, with a relevant group yielding positive results. Saffron and turmeric are the most relevant species studied in both preclinical and clinical studies; St. John's wort or kava have also been tested extensively. To the best of our knowledge, no review to date has provided a comprehensive understanding of the biomolecular mechanisms of action of these herbs or of whether their potential effects could have real benefits. The purpose of this narrative review is to provide an update regarding medicinal plants from the year 2000 to the present to examine the therapeutic potential of these antidepressant-like plants in order to contribute to the development of new therapeutic methods to alleviate the tremendous burden that depression causes worldwide.

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治疗抑郁症的药用植物：来自临床前研究的证据

药用植物及其提取物是天然药物，具有治疗各种疾病的巨大潜力，包括抑郁症和焦虑症。在抑郁症的情况下，数百种植物传统上被用于世代相传的民间医学。不同的植物提取物和天然产物已被分析为潜在的抗抑郁剂，并使用经过验证的模型来测试动物中的抗抑郁样作用，尽管也采用了其他补充研究。这些研究大多集中在与这些潜在影响有关的可能介质上，多巴胺、5-羟色胺和去甲肾上腺素是主要的神经递质，通过干扰受体和单氨基氧化酶的代谢，以及通过神经内分泌和神经保护作用。效果。PubMed 中大约有 650 篇关于抗抑郁药用植物的报告；其中 155 个已在本次审查中汇编，相关组产生了积极的结果。藏红花和姜黄是临床前和临床研究中最相关的物种；圣约翰草或卡瓦酒也经过了广泛的测试。据我们所知，迄今为止，还没有任何评论能够全面了解这些草药的生物分子作用机制或它们的潜在作用是否会产生真正的益处。