Yellow Flower Fights the Blues

As far back as 77 A.D., the Siberian herb Rhodiola rosea was used to cure headaches. Soviet research into this "adaptogen" -- a substance capable of increasing resilience to stress and boosting performance, mentally and physically -- showed that rhodiola could impact depression and ameliorate the effects of sleep deprivation. Soviet cosmonauts have used rhodiola while stationed on the Mir space station.

While rhodiola shows great promise as an antidepressant, U.S. based research is hard to come by -- drug companies aren't interested and supplement manufacturers can't fund large-scale studies. However, Canada has recently launched a major project to grow and harvest the herb and plan a small human study once the crops have matured.

Images of Rhodiola rosea by Du-Sa-Ni-Ma, used under Creative Commons license.