| Summary: | <i>Geum japonicum</i>, commonly known as Asian herb bennet, has been used as a diuretic, astringent, anti-dizziness, and anti-headache agent in traditional medicine. Since the antidepressant-like effects of <i>G. japonicum</i> extract have not been well studied, we examined the antidepressant-like effects of <i>G. japonicum</i> extract using depressive‐like behavior induced in mice through daily injection of corticosterone (CORT). ICR mice (male, 8 weeks old) were treated with CORT (40 mg/kg, i.p.) and orally administered using oral gavage needles with <i>G. japonicum</i> extract (30, 100, and 300 mg/kg) for 4 weeks. Behavioral experiments were performed 1 h after administration. The control mice exhibited a significant increase in the immobility times in the tail suspension and forced swim tests as well as the step-through latency time in the passive avoidance test. Further, the control group showed a significant decrease in their sucrose consumption. However, treatment with <i>G. japonicum</i> extract at doses of 100 and 300 mg/kg significantly improved these depression-like behaviors without altering the locomotor activity. Moreover, treatment with <i>G. japonicum</i> extract significantly prevented the decrease in the expression of brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) in the hippocampus. In addition, <i>G. japonicum</i> extract had neuroprotective effects against CORT-induced neurotoxicity in SH-SY5Y cells. Our study indicates that <i>G. japonicum</i> extract exhibits antidepressant-like activity in CORT-induced depressive mice, which might be as a result of increased BDNF expression.
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