RESEARCH ARTICLE Assessment of anti-depres s

in traditional medicine to treat inflammation and other inflammation-related diseases, and the raw Korea Full list of author information is available at the end of the articleBackgrounds Nelumbo nucifera is a perennial aquatic plant grown and consumed all over the world, especially in India and South East Asia. Nelumbinis Semen (NS, the seeds of Nelumbo nucifera) or lotus seed is a traditional medicine that has been used for hundreds of years in East-Asia to treat in-somnia, anxiety and women's post-menstrual-pause depression [1]. NS contains alkyl 4-hydroxybenzoates [2], some bisbenzylisoquinoline alkaloids [3-5], benzylisoqui-noline alkaloids [4], aporphine and proaporphine alkaloids [6]. In previous studies, we found that this herbal medi-cine exerted an antidepressant-like effect in rats based on the forced swim test. The results of that study sug-gested that NS could increase local cholinergic and dopaminergic or norephinergic neurotransmission via ac-tivation of cAMP formation in the hippocampus and pre-frontal cortex [7,8]. Natural products have long bee