Review Article Open Access

Curcumin as an Antidepressant: A Review.

Abstract

Curcumin, commonly called diferuloyl methane, is a hydrophobic polyphone derived from the rhizome (turmeric) of the herb Curcuma longa. Turmeric has been used traditionally for many ailments because of its wide spectrum of pharmacological activities. Curcumin has been identified as the active principle of turmeric, which is useful in clinical setting because of its safety profile. Depression is the most common psychiatric disorder carrying high burden in terms of treatment costs and is currently ranked fourth in terms of global disease burden by the World Health Organization. Antidepressant therapy includes drugs having plenty of side effects which counterbalance the therapeutic benefit. Thus, it is worthwhile to look for antidepressant from plants with proven advantage and favorable benefit to risk ratio. So, there are tremendous researches going on curcumin to reveal the mechanism of action for its antidepressant effect. The present review summarizes the possible mechanisms involved in its antidepressant effect.

Patel Pankti S, Samaresh Pal Roy, Nikunj Patel, and Kashmira J Gohil

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