Anxiety is one of the most common diseases endangering human health. Its pathogenesis is complex, the studies on the mechanisms of anxiety disorder are concentrated on neurotransmitter, neuroendocrine, immunologic system. Flavonoids are a kind of compounds which possess a variety of physiological activity, used in plenty of diseases. In recent years, researches of natural flavonoids on anti-anxiety were increasing, but contents were incomplete. It was just involved several neurotransmitters in research area. This paper is based on different anxiolytic effect mechanisms and structure-activity relationships of natural flavonoids, summarizing the researches of domestic and foreign, which can serve as a reference for further studies on anxiolytic effects of natural flavonoids.
Keywords: anxiolytic effect; flavonoid; mechanism of action; neurotransmitter; structure-activity relationship.
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