Volume-1 ,Issue-5, December-2025

Major depression is characterized by symptoms like sad mood, loss of interest and pleasure, low energy, worthlessness, guilt, psychomotor retardation or agitation, change in appetite and/or sleep, melancholia, suicidal thoughts, etc. Brain lesions cause memory to break down in several distinct ways in people. First, cortical lesions cause disturbances in short-term memory. Second, other cortical lesions disturb the retrieval of previously well-established semantic and episodic memories. Aromatherapy is currently used worldwide in the management of depression, anxiety, some cognitive disorders, insomnia and stress-related disorders. Although essential oils have been used, reputedly effectively, for centuries as a traditional medicine, there is very little verified science behind this use. Cestrum nocturnum is a garden shrub commonly known as "lady of the night" which is used as a remedy for different health disorders. This sprawling shrub has glossy simple leaves, vine like stems, greenish-creamy white tubular flowers and fleshy berries. Behavioral parameters are the primary evidence to confirm depression as well as anti-depressant of treatments. All the parameters are based on pathophysiology of depression because depression is evaluated through stress or immobilization of animal like mice and rats. The plant Cestrum nocturnum shows the richness of phytochemicals except Carbohydrates. As per study of various behavior parameters and biochemical estimation of essential oil of Cestrum nocturnumit concluded that the plant Cestrum nocturnum shows the positive response for antidepressant activity and learning/ memory impairment as compare to negative control but the response is not better than standard drug response. The response of plant Cestrum nocturnum is better than negative control group comparatively.

Keyword: Cestrum nocturnum, Aroma therapy, Mice, Depression, Learning and memory