Depression is a mood disorder; it has been treated and classified in a number of ways. Herbal preparations used by many people for the treatment of depression and a search for novel anti-depressant plants has been progressed significantly in the past few decades. The potential of the herbal remedies has been evaluated by using various animal models. This review deals with the various herbal extracts and their chemical constituents that are beneficial in the treatment of depression. Herbal plants have shown the anti-depressant effect by virtue of the combined effect of their chemical constituents. A large number of synthetic anti-depressant drugs have been used to treat the depression in the clinically depressed patients but they have the side effects. So, to overcome these effects we have a need of herbal anti-depressants. Herbal remedies that have demonstrable psychotherapeutic activities have provided a potential to treat depression and deserve increased attention in future studies. The present review deals with the herbal plants and the plant based preparation having anti-depressant potential in the animal models and are used clinically. These studies have provided useful information for the development of new pharmacotherapies from herbal plants for use in clinical psychiatry.
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