Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
Review
. 2023 May 25;24(11):9244.
doi: 10.3390/ijms24119244.

Antidepressant Effects of Essential Oils: A Review of the Past Decade (2012-2022) and Molecular Docking Study of Their Major Chemical Components

Emily Christie M Fonseca  1 , Lanalice R Ferreira  2 , Pablo Luis B Figueiredo  3 , Cristiane do Socorro F Maia  1 , William N Setzer  4 , Joyce Kelly R Da Silva  1   2
Affiliations
Review

Antidepressant Effects of Essential Oils: A Review of the Past Decade (2012-2022) and Molecular Docking Study of Their Major Chemical Components

Emily Christie M Fonseca et al. Int J Mol Sci. .

Abstract

Depression is a mental disorder that affects more than 300 million people worldwide. The medications available for treatment take a long time to exhibit therapeutic results and present several side effects. Furthermore, there is a decrease in the quality of life of people suffering from this affliction. Essential oils are traditionally used to relieve the symptoms of depression due to the properties of the constituents of these oils to cross the blood-brain barrier acting on depression-related biological receptors associated with reduced toxicity and side effects. In addition, compared to traditional drugs, they have several administration forms. This review provides a comprehensive assessment of studies on plants whose essential oil has exhibit antidepressant activity in the past decade and the mechanism of action of the major components and models tested. An additional in silico study was conducted with the frequent compounds in the composition of these essential oils, providing a molecular approach to the mechanism of action that has been reported in the past decade. This review is valuable for the development of potential antidepressant medications in addition to providing a molecular approach to the antidepressant mechanism of action of the major volatile compounds that have been reported in the past decade.

Keywords: 5-HT receptor; BDNF; dopamine transporter; linalool; monoaminergic; monoterpenes; phenylpropanoids; serotonin receptor; sesquiterpenes; β-caryophyllene.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare no conflict of interest.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Chemical structures of molecules analyzed by molecular docking.
Figure 2
Figure 2
Interactions of fluoxetine at the SERT catalytic site.
Figure 3
Figure 3
Monoterpene interactions at the SERT site: linalool (a), terpinen-4-ol (b), α-phellandrene (c), D-limonene (d).
Figure 4
Figure 4
Patchoulol (salmon) interactions in SERT (a) and DAT receptors (b).
Figure 5
Figure 5
Interactions of (-)-β-caryophyllene (magenta) at SERT (a) and DAT (b) receptors.
Figure 6
Figure 6
Interactions of (E)-anethole and (E)-cinnamaldehyde phenylpropanoids at the SERT and DAT site: (a,b) catalytic site of SER and DAT, respectively, complexed with (E)-anethole (dark gray); (c,d) catalytic site of SERT and DAT, respectively, complexed with (E)-cinnamaldehyde (magenta).
Figure 7
Figure 7
Graphical representation of the number of publications on EOs with antidepressant activity in the past decade.
Figure 8
Figure 8
Search strategy flowchart.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

Similar articles

See all similar articles

Cited by

References

    1. Santomauro D.F., Mantilla Herrera A.M., Shadid J., Zheng P., Ashbaugh C., Pigott D.M., Abbafati C., Adolph C., Amlag J.O., Aravkin A.Y., et al. Global Prevalence and Burden of Depressive and Anxiety Disorders in 204 Countries and Territories in 2020 Due to the COVID-19 Pandemic. Lancet. 2021;398:1700–1712. doi: 10.1016/S0140-6736(21)02143-7. - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. WHO . World Mental Health Report: Transforming Mental Health for All. World Health Organization; Geneva, Switzerland: 2022.
    1. Kola L., Kohrt B.A., Hanlon C., Naslund J.A., Sikander S., Balaji M., Benjet C., Cheung E.Y.L., Eaton J., Gonsalves P., et al. COVID-19 Mental Health Impact and Responses in Low-Income and Middle-Income Countries: Reimagining Global Mental Health. Lancet Psychiatry. 2021;8:535–550. doi: 10.1016/S2215-0366(21)00025-0. - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. McIntyre R.S., Xiao H.X., Syeda K., Vinberg M., Carvalho A.F., Mansur R.B., Maruschak N., Cha D.S. The Prevalence, Measurement, and Treatment of the Cognitive Dimension/Domain in Major Depressive Disorder. CNS Drugs. 2015;29:577–589. doi: 10.1007/s40263-015-0263-x. - DOI - PubMed
    1. Morozova A., Zorkina Y., Abramova O., Pavlova O., Pavlov K., Soloveva K., Volkova M., Alekseeva P., Andryshchenko A., Kostyuk G., et al. Neurobiological Highlights of Cognitive Impairment in Psychiatric Disorders. Int. J. Mol. Sci. 2022;23:1217. doi: 10.3390/ijms23031217. - DOI - PMC - PubMed

MeSH terms

LinkOut - more resources