An Ethnobotanical Study of Medicinal Plants With Antianxiety and Antidepressant Effects in Shahrekord

Abstract

Anxiety and depression are two highly prevalent disorders in all human communities. The purpose of the present study was to report medicinal plant species that local people, according to their ethnobotanical knowledge, in Shahrekord use as antianxiety and antidepressant agents. The present ethnobotanical study was carried out to report and collect indigenous knowledge in the studied region in 2017 via face-to-face interviews and by using a questionnaire distributed among 29 traditional therapists. To this end, interviewers referred to respondents in person to elicit their pharmacological and ethnobotanical knowledge, and then register their viewpoints related to herbal medicine. The data extracted from the questionnaires were appropriately and meticulously tabulated, and data analysis was done by the Excel software. In this study, the formula below was used to calculate the frequency of plant use. Medicinal plants that are used as antianxiety and antidepressant drugs according to the ethnobotanical knowledge in Shahrekord include Fritillaria imperialis L., Ducrosia anethifolia L., Anchusa italyca Retz. (L.) DC., Dracocephalum multicaule, Stachys lavandulifolia, Thymus vulgaris, Tripleurospermum parviflorum L., Crataegus persica, Hypericum scabrum L., Valeriana officinalis, Centaurea cyanus, Rheum ribes L. and Melissa officinalis L are the most herbal plants effective on anxiety and depression on shahrekord ethno-botany.