Research Gist
Brahmi (Bacopa monnieri) is best known for memory, but Ayurveda also describes it as calming and stress-balancing. This double-blind, placebo-controlled crossover study looked at how a single dose affects the body's response to mental pressure. Seventeen healthy volunteers completed a demanding multitasking test at baseline, then again one and two hours after taking a placebo, 320 mg or 640 mg of a standardized Brahmi extract (CDRI 08). Each participant tried every condition, with a seven-day gap in between. Mood and salivary cortisol — a marker of the body's stress response — were measured before and after each session. Brahmi was associated with reduced cortisol levels and some positive mood effects, pointing to a physiological basis for stress balance. Performance on attention tasks such as the Stroop test also improved at both one and two hours after dosing.
Key Learnings
- Salivary cortisol, a marker of the stress response, was reduced after Brahmi.
- Some positive mood effects were seen during a demanding multitasking test.
- Attention-task performance improved within one to two hours of a single dose.
- The crossover design meant every participant experienced both Brahmi and placebo.
- With only 17 participants, the authors called for larger studies to confirm the size of these effects.