The word Melancholia originated from the Greek “melas” meaning “black” and “khole” meaning “bile”. In Urdu, it is called “Maalekholia”. It is a type of disorder that chiefly affects the mental process in the human body and may be marked by multiple symptoms including, but not limited to, feelings of sadness, anxiety, and emptiness. It is often accompanied by dysfunction of other systems in the body, such as the digestive and the nervous system.

A very important point to be made here is that the Herbal approach to treating Melancholic Depression differs vastly from non Unani medicine. The very meaning of the word Melancholia refers to imbalances of one of the fundamental humors in the body, the Bile, which must be the focus of any attempt to diagnose and treat this disorder.

People operating in high stress environments and people who are sensitive by nature are often seen suffering from this ailment. Chronic cases are often hard to treat.