ABSTRACT
Depression is a common emotional mental disorder. Patients not only continuously showed depression, pessimism and apathy in mood, but also have gastrointestinal symptoms such as anorexia and constipation in body. Widely attention has been also received in the potential biological role of gut microbiota in the pathogenesis of depression. It plays an important role in the interaction between the intestine and the brain, not only affecting the intestinal barrier function, but also maintaining the homeostasis of host through the microbiota-gut-brain axis. In recent years, the traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) has the advantages of obvious therapeutic effects and few side effects when treating neuropsychiatric diseases, such as depression. The pharmacological mechanism of TCM exerting antidepressant effects by regulating the structure of gut microbiota, reducing displacement, and maintaining the normal function of gut microbiota has been also widely concerned. By investigating the relevant literature in recent years, this paper summarizes the antidepressant effect of TCM in different directions such as Chinese medicine monomer, single medicine and compound medicine. And this paper reviews the antidepressant effects and mechanisms of TCM at different levels, such as the correction of gut microbiota structure, the regulation of immunity, the transplantation of gut microbiota and the regulation of its metabolites. This paper will provide a basis for further explaining the mechanism of gut microbiota in depression and the mechanism of antidepressant effect of TCM.