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Product of the week - Bacopa Monniera

CCL are now pleased to be able to offer bacopa monnieri extract fully approved from stock. This amazing herb possesses a multitude of benefits, but perhaps the most notable is the ability to improve a variety of mental conditions.

Bacopa Monnieri is found growing throughout India, although there are also several species found in Hawaii and Florida. It is a small, sprawling plant and has been revered for more than three thousand years in Ayurvedic medicine, appearing in the ancient Ayurvedic treatise, Charaka Samhita, as a brain tonic for treatment of a range of mental conditions. It also acts as a mild sedative.

Most parts of the plant have been used traditionally, but modern preparations employ extracts of the stem and leaves. Some of the constituents in Bacopa Monnieri include saponins (monnierin, hersaponin, and bacoside A and B), betulinic acid, aspartic acid, glutamic acid, serine, wogonin and oroxindin, flavonoids (apigenin and luteolin), beta-sitosterol, D-mannitol, stigmasterol (and its esters), nicotine and alkaloids (brahmine and herpestine).

Bacopa Monnieri is considered a "brain tonic" and has been used for centuries to increase mental capacity, improve mental and brain functions, enhance clear thinking and support learning and memory. Traditional applications already suggest that it has a direct effect on increasing concentration; and modern laboratory tests claim that Bacopa provides antioxidant protection for the critical memory centres and helps to reduce the effects of stress on the brain.

The bacosides (saponins) in Bacopa appear to play a protective role in the synaptic functions of the nerves of the hippocampus, the seat of memory. Nerve impulses are transmitted across the synapses (the gap between two neurons, over which impulses lead to learning), and their degeneration is believed to contribute to impaired memory and cognition. Use of Bacopa is thus thought to improve learning skills and impaired memory. Bacopa extracts also appear to have significant antioxidant activity in the brain and other effects that may help protect brain cells.

Additional brain effects of Bacopa demonstrated in lab research include reduction of both anxiety and depression. Biochemically, these nervous-system effects have been attributed to an enhancement of the effects of the neurotransmitters acetylcholine and, possibly, serotonin or GABA (gamma aminobutyric acid). As a potent nerve tonic, Bacopa Monnieri is used to restore, energise, nourish and strengthen the central nervous system. It is used to calm the nerves and act as an herbal anti-depressant, alleviating nervous exhaustion, anxiety, temporary depression and headaches. It has also been used to treat nervous breakdowns, attention deficit and nervous deficit, due to injury or stroke. Currently, in India, Bacopa is recognised as being effective in the treatment of mental illness, insanity and epilepsy, and is said to protect mental function in those patients with epilepsy who take the anticonvulsant drug, phenytoin/valproic acid.

Bacopa Monnieri is considered an Ayurvedic "age tonic," and is said to restore youth and vitality and stimulate sex drive. It is a very popular herb in India for longevity and mental function and is used to increase vigour and decrease fatigue. It is also thought to be useful in repairing skin (smoothing scars and minimizing imperfections) and supportive tissues and smoothing cellulite.

It has also been reported that Bacopa Monnieri acts as a cardiotonic that is used to aid the circulatory system and help keep the heart functioning normally.