Table 2.

Medical herbs against depression.

Herbs	Dose	Study design	Effects and mechanisms	Reference
Camellia sinensis	5, 10, and 20 mg/kg	Oral administration in mice	Decrease immobility in the tail suspension test and forced swimming test Modulate the HPA axis	[70]
Crocus sativus	30 mg/day	Randomized controlled clinical trials	Improve the Hamilton Rating Scale for Depression	[71–75]
	100 mg/day	Randomized controlled clinical trials	Improve Beck Depression Inventory and Beck Anxiety Inventory Scores with rare side effects
Echium amoenum	375 mg/day	Randomized controlled clinical trials	Improve the Hamilton Rating Scale for Depression at week four of a study, however this result was not maintained at week six	[80]
Hypericum perforatum	3 × 300 mg/day	Long-term follow-up study involving 426 patients	Prevent relapse after recovery from acute depression	[81]
Piper methysticum	16 g containing 250 mg of kavalactones/day	Randomized controlled trials	Improve the Montgomery–Asberg Depression Rating Scale with no serious adverse effects and no clinical hepatotoxicity	[82]
Rhodiola rosea	1.5–6 g/kg	Oral administration in rats	Increase hippocampus 5-HT level-induced proliferation of neural stem cell, repairing the damaged neuronal cells in hippocampus	[83]
	10–20 mg/kg	Oral administration in rats	Revert decreased sucrose intake Reduce moving behavior Minimize weight gain and dysregulation of their estrous cycle	[84]
	340–680 mg/day	Randomized controlled phase III clinical trial	Improve overall depression, together with insomnia, emotional instability, and somatization, but not self-esteem with no serious side effects	[85]
Lavandula angustifolia	Lavender aromatherapy	Inhalation in rats	Inhibit depression-like behaviors in forced swimming and elevated plus-maze tests Reverse spatial memory deficits	[86]
	Lavender cream	Randomized controlled clinical trials	Reduce stress, anxiety, and depression in pregnant women	[87]
	Lavender aromatherapy	Randomized controlled clinical trials	Reduce depressive symptoms Improve the Edinburgh Postnatal Depression Scale	[88–91]
Nelumbo nucifera	4 g/kg	Oral administration in rats	Reverse the decreased sucrose intake and the decreased 5-HT1A receptor binding in brain	[92]
	2.1 g/kg	Oral administration in rats	Increase struggling time and first latency time in the forced swimming test	[93]
	0–2000 mg/kg for rats 0–4000 mg/kg for beagle dogs	Oral administration in rats or beagle dogs	Improve the start latency, rearing number, grooming time, and decreased visiting counts caused by chronic mild stress in the forced swimming test No toxicity during 28 days of administration in dogs and 13 weeks of administration in rats	[94]