Sepideh Keshani - Bachelor of Molecular Cellular Biology, Majoring In Biochemistry, Faculty of Material, Najafabad, Islamic Azad University, Esfahan, Iran

Depression is a mood disorder involving boredom and inactivity or apathy and reluctance andcan affect a person's thoughts, behavior, feelings, happiness and health. People with depressionmay have changes in appetite, changes in sleep patterns, loss of energy, and difficultyconcentrating. Depression is a multigenetic or multifactorial syndrome. Traditional ChineseMedicine (TCM) is a systems medicine and its clinical experience and integrated theory fordiagnosis and treatment provides an alternative method of novel drug discovery in depressiontreatment. Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) has historically been used to treat depression uptill today, particularly in Asia. Herb alone, as well as herbal formula, is commonly prescribed forthe therapies of mental illnesses. Since various adverse events of western medication exist, thenumber of people who use herbs to benefit their health is increasing. In this Mini Review, wereview and discuss the effective herbals of depression, the mechanisms of action of herbalantidepressants and their acting targets in the pathological systems in the brain, such asMonoamine Transmissions, hypothalamic–pituitary–adrenal (HPA) axis, neurotropic factorbrain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) cascade, and glutamate transmission. Furthermore, wediscuss pharmacological approaches to integrate the mechanism of action from the molecularlevel into the systems level for understanding of systems pharmacology of TCM formulations.Integration of the studies at the molecular level into the systems level not only represents a trendin TCM study but also promotes our understanding of the system-wide mechanism of action ofherbal antidepressant formulations.

depression, traditional medicine (TM), molecular mechanisms, Central nervous system (CNS), Pathology