Hypnotic effects and binding studies for GABA(A) and 5-HT(2C) receptors of traditional medicinal plants used in Asia for insomnia.

Aim Of The Study: Many medicinal plants have been used for treatment of insomnia in Asia. However, scientific evidence and precise mechanism for their sedative-hypnotic activity have not been fully investigated. Thus, we investigated the binding activity of the oriental plant extracts (mainly from Korea and Japan) to the well-known molecular targets for sleep regulation, GABA(A) and 5-HT(2C) receptors.