"Natural Compounds and Depressive Disorder: A Review Highlighting Botanical Sources and Reaction Mechanisms"

Abstract

Depressive disorder is a typical mental illness characterized by depressed mood and anhedonia, with a great burden to patients and society. Currently, only a small minority of medicines are efficient in the clinic with high prices and various adverse reactions, including sleep disorders and gastrointestinal reactions. To develop new antidepressants, pharmacists have gradually turned their attention to phytochemicals, especially those from traditional Chinese medicine (TCM). Natural products could be good candidates for developing effective drugs and valid therapeutic strategies. In this article, we reviewed more than 20 natural compounds from TCMs with protective action against the depressive disorder, and their reaction mechanisms were reviewed from four aspects: reversing neurotransmitter imbalance, maintaining neuroendocrine homeostasis, alleviating synaptic plasticity dysfunction, and inhibiting neuroinflammation.