RESUMEN
Depression is a major health problem currently recognized as a leading cause of morbidity worldwide. In the United States alone, depression affects approximately 20% of the population. With current medications suffering from major shortcomings that include slow onset of action, poor efficacy, and unwanted side effects, the search for new and improved antidepressants is ever increasing. In an effort to evade side effects, people have been resorting to popular traditional herbal medicines to relieve the symptoms of depression, and there is a need for more empirical knowledge about their use and effectiveness. This review provides an overview of the current knowledge state regarding a variety of natural plant products commonly used in depression. Herbal medicines discussed that have been used in clinical trials for the treatment of mild to moderate depression states include the popular St. John's wort, saffron, Rhodiola, lavender, Echium, and the Chinese formula banxia houpu. In addition, new emerging herbal products that have been studied in different animal models are discussed including Polygala tenuifolia, the traditional Chinese herbal SYJN formula, gan mai da zao, and Cannabis sativa constituents. A comprehensive review of the chemical, pharmacological, and clinical aspects of each of the reviewed products is provided. Finally, recent preclinical studies reporting the antidepressant action of marine-derived natural products are discussed at the end of the review.
Asunto(s)
Productos Biológicos/farmacología , Depresión/tratamiento farmacológico , Extractos Vegetales/farmacología , Animales , Productos Biológicos/química , Productos Biológicos/aislamiento & purificación , Humanos , Estructura Molecular , Fitoterapia , Extractos Vegetales/química , Extractos Vegetales/aislamiento & purificación , Plantas Medicinales/químicaRESUMEN
The effects of salinity, gender, and development on the acute toxicity of aldicarb were examined in the euryhaline fish, Japanese medaka (Oryzias latipes). The 96-h median lethal concentrations (LC50s) at 1.5 parts per thousand (per thousand) salinity were not significantly different between adults and juveniles but larvae were significantly more sensitive to aldicarb. A two-week exposure to increased salinity significantly enhanced the toxicity of 0.5 ppm aldicarb to both sexually mature male and female medaka. After 48 h of aldicarb exposure, mortality significantly increased (p < 0.05) in males from 13+/-5.7% at 1.5 per thousand, salinity to 56+/-5.7% at 20 per thousand; in females mortality significantly increased (p < 0.01) from 17+/-5.7% to 76+/-5.6%. A time-course study was conducted in which muscle acetylcholinesterase (AChE) inhibition was monitored after exposure to aldicarb. In general, AChE in females was inhibited to a greater degree at 12.0 and 20.0 per thousand salinity regimens than AChE in males. Muscle AChE in females residing at 20.0 per thousand was inhibited 93+/-3.3% by 8 h of exposure to 0.95 ppm aldicarb, whereas in males the maximum inhibition was 80+/-7.4% after 8 h of exposure to 0.86 ppm aldicarb at 20 per thousand salinity. These results indicate that environmental factors, such as salinity, in addition to gender and development, have significant impacts on the acute toxicity of aldicarb to Japanese medaka.