SCIENCE ALERT: The effectiveness of Bacopa monnieri (Linn.) Wettst. as a nootropic, neuroprotective, or antidepressant supplement (Scientific Reports)

Editor's Note

Bacopa monnieri, (Linn.) Wettst., is a plant with a long history in traditional medicine, used to enhance and improve memory and as an anxiolytic. The herb produces a vast number of active constituents including several alkaloids and saponins. Studies both in vitro and in vivo suggest neuroprotective and nootropic properties, and explore the respective mechanisms of action of B. monnieri against various neuronal insults. This study reviews B. monnieri's efficacy as a neuroprotective drug and as a nootropic in healthy people and also against various neurological diseases including Alzheimer's, dementia, depression, and anxiety. Two clinical studies showed statistically significant improvements in memory from older people who complained of memory loss. Some studies looked at B. monnieri to treat patients that had been selected based on criteria other than clinical diagnosis of depression or anxiety, which confounds analysis. Each of the clinical studies in healthy people measured an array of different neuropsychological tests, which makes meta-analysis challenging. The authors review preclinical and clinical trials, and suggest methods standardization and further larger extensive long-term studies against current standard drugs to determine whether B. monnieri is a viable alternative medicine.

January 2021

Scientific Reports

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-020-80045-2

The effectiven ess of Bacopa monnieri (Linn.) Wettst. as a nootropic, neuroprotective, or antidepressant supplement: analysis of the available clinical data

Abstract

Bacopa monnieri (Linn.) Wettst. has been used in traditional medicine as a drug to enhance and improve memory. In this regard, this study aims to provide B. monnieri's efficacy as a neuroprotective drug and as a nootropic against various neurological diseases. Literatures were collected, following Prisma guidelines, from databases, including Scopus, PubMed, Google Scholar, and Science Direct and were scrutinized using a quality scoring system. Means, standard deviations and ‘n’ numbers were extracted from the metrics and analyzed. Jamovi computer software for Mac was used to carry out the meta-analysis. The selected studies suggested that the plant extracts were able to show some improvements in healthy subjects which were determined in Auditory Verbal Learning Task, digit span-reverse test, inspection time task and working memory, even though it was not significant, as no two studies found statistically significant changes in the same two tests. B. monnieri was able to express modest improvements in subjects with memory loss, wherein only a few of the neuropsychological tests showed statistical significance. B. monnieri in a cocktail with other plant extracts were able to significantly reduce the effects of Alzheimer’s disease, and depression which cannot be solely credited as the effect of B. monnieri. Although in one study B. monnieri was able to potentiate the beneficial effects of citalopram; on the whole, currently, there are only limited studies to establish the memory-enhancing and neuroprotective effects of B. monnieri. More studies have to be done in the future by comparing the effect with standard drugs, in order to establish these effects clinically in the plant and corroborate the preclinical data.