Abstract
Depression is a sort of mental disorder which is very common. To treat depression, many drugs such as TCA, MAOI are developed and used. But they have a lot of side effects, so it needs to develop drugs without side effects or with less side effects. Herbal medicines have been used to treat diseases not only physical but also mental and have less side effects. therefore, it has been thoght the need to develop herbal medicine with antidepressant effect. The purpose of this study was to reseach antidepressant effect and influence on monoamines of chunwangboshimdan thought to have antidepressant according to ancient medical book- donguibogam- and recent reports. We used 'forced swimming test(FST)' to know antidepressant effect of chunwangboshimdan and HPLC to check the influence on monoamines and their metabolites(norepinephrine, dopamine, DOPAC, HVA, serotonin, 5-HIAA) of chunwangboshimdan after divided into cerebral cortex, striatum, hypothalamus and hippocampus. The results were obtained as follows: In the study of antidepressant effect by 'forced swimming test(FST)'method, chunwang boshimdan had a significant antidepressant effect. In the study of influence on monoamines by HPLC, chunwangboshimdan mainly increased dopamine among monoamines and their metabolites(norepinephrine, dopamine, DOPAC, HVA, serotonin, 5-HIAA) significantly in 4 parts of rat's brain above-mentioned. Calculated by turnover ratio formulae of monoamine, chunwangboshimdan has more results than Imipramine. These results suggest that chunwangboshimdan has antidepressant effect that is related with the increase of monoamines by suppressing their metabolism as its mechanism.