Department of Developmental and Social Psychology, Sapienza University, 00185 Rome, Italy.
Department of Neurology, Ospedale San Raffaele Turro, 20127 Milan, Italy.
Nutrients. 2021 Feb 6;13(2):530. doi: 10.3390/nu13020530.
Sleep is an essential component of physical and emotional well-being, and lack, or disruption, of sleep due to insomnia is a highly prevalent problem. The interest in complementary and alternative medicines for treating or preventing insomnia has increased recently. Centuries-old herbal treatments, popular for their safety and effectiveness, include valerian, passionflower, lemon balm, lavender, and Californian poppy. These herbal medicines have been shown to reduce sleep latency and increase subjective and objective measures of sleep quality. Research into their molecular components revealed that their sedative and sleep-promoting properties rely on interactions with various neurotransmitter systems in the brain. Gamma-aminobutyric acid (GABA) is an inhibitory neurotransmitter that plays a major role in controlling different vigilance states. GABA receptors are the targets of many pharmacological treatments for insomnia, such as benzodiazepines. Here, we perform a systematic analysis of studies assessing the mechanisms of action of various herbal medicines on different subtypes of GABA receptors in the context of sleep control. Currently available evidence suggests that herbal extracts may exert some of their hypnotic and anxiolytic activity through interacting with GABA receptors and modulating GABAergic signaling in the brain, but their mechanism of action in the treatment of insomnia is not completely understood.
睡眠是身心健康的重要组成部分，由于失眠导致的睡眠不足或睡眠中断是一个非常普遍的问题。最近，人们对用于治疗或预防失眠的补充和替代药物产生了浓厚的兴趣。几个世纪以来，草药治疗因其安全性和有效性而广受欢迎，其中包括缬草、西番莲、柠檬香脂、薰衣草和加利福尼亚罂粟。这些草药已被证明可以缩短睡眠潜伏期并提高主观和客观的睡眠质量指标。对其分子成分的研究表明，它们的镇静和促进睡眠的特性依赖于与大脑中各种神经递质系统的相互作用。γ-氨基丁酸（GABA）是一种抑制性神经递质，在控制不同警觉状态方面起着重要作用。GABA 受体是许多失眠药物治疗的靶点，如苯二氮䓬类药物。在这里，我们对评估各种草药在睡眠控制方面对不同 GABA 受体亚型的作用机制的研究进行了系统分析。目前的证据表明，草药提取物可能通过与 GABA 受体相互作用并调节大脑中的 GABA 能信号来发挥其部分催眠和抗焦虑作用，但它们在治疗失眠方面的作用机制尚不完全清楚。
