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Rhodiola rosea L. as a putative botanical antidepressant
Spurred by a lack of studies investigating the impact of Rhodiola rosea (R. rosea) on depression, Amsterdam & Panossian (2016) present in this literature review a breadth of studies investigating the antidepressant and anti-stress effects of R.rosea (considered to be a herbal adaptogen i.e., able to help the body combat stress) in animals and humans. R. rosea (and salidroside; purified from R.rosea) is thought to affect the neuroendocrine-immune and neurotransmitter receptors implicit in the mechanisms underlying depression in adults, exhibiting antidepressant properties in several clinical studies on both ex vivo and animal models. The authors aimed to verify the existing body of literature investigating R. rosea and highlight data on its safety and efficacy, and so a search of MEDLINE and the Russian state library database was done, revealing that most data on the use of R.rosea root (L.rhizome) extracts in patients suffering from depression is derived from two randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled trials encompassing 146 patients diagnosed with major depressive disorder, in addition to seven open-label studies investigating 716 adults diagnosed with stress-induced mild depression (asthenic syndrome or psychoneurosis). The results of the review alluded to an antidepressant effect in adults following administration of R. rosea, and that R. rosea has a tolerable safety profile. The authors thus conclude that R. rosea elicits a multi-faceted effect on several components of the neuroendocrine-immune and neurotransmitter systems, leading to postulated antidepressant activity and positive impacts on mood [NPID: Clinical study, molecular networks, pharmacology, Rhodiola rosea L., depression]
Year: 2016
