Depression is one of eommon psychotic affective disorders with increasing incidence every year and serious harms on human's health. In recent years, the herbal bupleurum has been used more and more widely in depression treatments with obvious therapeutic effects. There are many new findings in anti-depression pharmacological studies on bupleurum, including the compound prescription, extract and active ingredient. It is found out the nervous, immune and endocrine systems are anti-depression targets of bupleurum compound, bupleurum extraction and saikosaponin. More and more anti-depression pharmacological studies of bupleurum are focused on monoamine neurotransmitter, neuron morphology, activity and cell signaling pathways, which have provided scientific basis for clinical therapy and clues for new drug research.