Plant-Derived Compounds with Potential Sedative and Anxiolytic Activities

A wide variety of active phytochemicals such as flavonoids, alkaloids, saponins, etc., have been isolated and identified in different plants. Pharmacological and chemical investigations of medicinal plants have provided important advances in therapeutic approach to several pathologies as well as extremely useful tools for the theoretical study of physiology and pharmacology. With increased use of herbal medicine, medicinal plants are receiving more attention from the scientific and pharmaceutical communities. Several compounds have been isolated and evaluated for their sedative and anxiolytic properties. Although most of the reported works are more of academic interest and very few find entry at clinical trials; one is hopeful that as more discoveries of sedative and anxiolytic compounds from plants are made, it will lead to generation of more effective drugs.