Gastrodiae Rhizoma (天麻tiān má): a review of biological activity and antidepressant mechanisms

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Abstract

Gastrodiae Rhizoma, also called chì jiàn (赤箭), guǐ dū yóu (鬼督郵), or tiān má (天麻) in Chinese, is considered a top grade (上品 shàng pǐn) medicine described to enter liver channel (肝經 gān jīng) in classic literatures of traditional Chinese medicine and has been used for centuries. Many studies investigating its various bioactivities and active compounds have been conducted worldwide. This article reviews these biological activities and details the antidepressant pharmacology of Gastrodiae Rhizoma. Gastrodiae Rhizoma treatment exerts an effective inhibition of diverse diseases and disorders, including convulsion, oxidative stress, mental disorders, amnesia, cardio-cerebral-vascular diseases, and inflammation, among others. The antidepressant effect of Gastrodiae Rhizoma was evaluated in animal models and several mechanisms of activity were found, including the modulation and regulation of monoamine oxidase activity, monoamine concentration and turnover, antioxidatant activity, GABAergic system induction, BDNF induction, neuroprotection and anti-inflammatory activity.

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Most cited references 117

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Decreased serum brain-derived neurotrophic factor levels in major depressed patients.

Félicien Karege, Guillaume Perret, Guido Bondolfi … (2002)

Recent findings with animal models have suggested a possible role for brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) in depression. We have therefore hypothesized that depression could be characterized by low levels of serum BDNF. Major depressed patients (15F + 15M) diagnosed according to DSM-IV criteria and healthy controls (15F + 15M) participated in the study. Serum BDNF was assayed with the ELISA method and the severity of depression was evaluated with Montgomery-Asberg-Depression Rating Scale (MADRS). BDNF levels were significantly lower in patients than in controls: 22.6 +/- 3 and 26.5 +/- 7 ng/ml (t-test = 2.7; d.f. = 58; P < 0.01). They were negatively correlated to the MADRS scores (r = -0.55; P < 0.02). Female patients were more depressed and released less BDNF than men. Analysis of covariance (MADRS and gender as independent variable vs. BDNF as dependent variable) indicated that depression severity mainly accounted for the negative correlation. These results suggest that major depression is characterized by low serum BDNF levels and support the hypothesis of neurotrophic factor involvement in affective disorders.

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The cellular neurobiology of depression.

W C Drevets, H Manji, Noah D. Charney (2001)

Major depressive disorders, long considered to be of neurochemical origin, have recently been associated with impairments in signaling pathways that regulate neuroplasticity and cell survival. Agents designed to directly target molecules in these pathways may hold promise as new therapeutics for depression.

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Depression duration but not age predicts hippocampal volume loss in medically healthy women with recurrent major depression.

Yvette Sheline, Milan Sanghavi, Mark Mintun … (1999)

This study takes advantage of continuing advances in the precision of magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) to quantify hippocampal volumes in a series of human subjects with a history of depression compared with controls. We sought to test the hypothesis that both age and duration of past depression would be inversely and independently correlated with hippocampal volume. A sample of 24 women ranging in age from 23 to 86 years with a history of recurrent major depression, but no medical comorbidity, and 24 case-matched controls underwent MRI scanning. Subjects with a history of depression (post-depressed) had smaller hippocampal volumes bilaterally than controls. Post-depressives also had smaller amygdala core nuclei volumes, and these volumes correlated with hippocampal volumes. In addition, post-depressives scored lower in verbal memory, a neuropsychological measure of hippocampal function, suggesting that the volume loss was related to an aspect of cognitive functioning. In contrast, there was no difference in overall brain size or general intellectual performance. Contrary to our initial hypothesis, there was no significant correlation between hippocampal volume and age in either post-depressive or control subjects, whereas there was a significant correlation with total lifetime duration of depression. This suggests that repeated stress during recurrent depressive episodes may result in cumulative hippocampal injury as reflected in volume loss.

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Author and article information

Journal

Journal ID (nlm-ta): J Tradit Complement Med

Journal ID (iso-abbrev): J Tradit Complement Med

Journal ID (publisher-id): JTCM

Title: Journal of Traditional and Complementary Medicine

Publisher: Medknow Publications & Media Pvt Ltd (India )

ISSN (Electronic): 2225-4110

Publication date (Print): Oct-Dec 2011

Volume: 1

Issue: 1

Pages: 31-40

Affiliations

[1]Institute of Food Science and Technology, National Taiwan University, Taipei, Taiwan

Author notes

[* ] Correspondence to: Dr. Lee-Yan Sheen , Tel: +886-2-33664129, Fax: +886-2-23620849, E-mail: lysheen@ 123456ntu.edu.tw

Article

Publisher ID: JTCM-1-31

DOI: 10.1016/S2225-4110(16)30054-2

PMC ID: 3942998

PubMed ID: 24716103

SO-VID: 12b240b0-5a82-492c-b7f1-92d86c89bdc7

License:

This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 Unported, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

Gastrodiae Rhizoma (天麻tiān má): a review of biological activity and antidepressant mechanisms

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Most cited references 117

Decreased serum brain-derived neurotrophic factor levels in major depressed patients.

The cellular neurobiology of depression.

Depression duration but not age predicts hippocampal volume loss in medically healthy women with recurrent major depression.

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