Current Use and What Science Says?

In this present day, Bacopa monnieri is quite effective in treating a number of conditions³.

Figure 6. The many uses of Bacopa monnieri

Improving mental health – Memory, Anxiety, and Depression

With the steady increase in the aging population worldwide, there is also an increase in health problems associated with cognitive dysfunction⁶. One particular trial looked at the effects of Bacopa monnieri on enhancing the cognitive performance in the elderly. Volunteers were given a standardized Bacopa 300 mg tablet/day or a similar placebo tablet orally for 12 weeks. The Bacopa recipients had better delayed recall memory, as seen from the Rey Auditory Verbal Learning Test (AVLT), and improved Stroop task reaction times, which tested the participants’ ability to ignore unnecessary information, when compared to the placebo receiving subjects that remained stable in both cases. Also, Bacopa recipients had lower depression and anxiety scores, and decreased heart rates than those taking placebos. In fact, these findings can be further supported by the results conducted from numerous other experiments with similar parameters.

Figure 7. The human brain

Nevertheless, while the study, being randomized, double-blinded, and placebo-controlled, was highly controlled to mitigate chances of error, it also had some flaws with respect to the experimental design. It included a narrow ethnic group of volunteers, who were 94 % white. Also, the fact that the placebo group had higher depression scores and heart rates may be due to greater frustration from performing the same tasks repeatedly and coming in for regular visits. So, Bacopa with its anxiolytic properties would have caused patients to experience less frustration, and consequently, have a less impaired performance. Therefore, while the tests conducted to monitor cognitive function were reasonable, they were not perfect for analyzing certain conditions like depression.

Neuroprotective effects…treating Alzheimer’s disease…

Along the same lines, where the aging population is particularly vulnerable to brain dysfunction, comes the problem of Alzheimer’s disease, a progressive neurodegenerative disorder that leaves victims to suffer from dementia⁷. Hence, a study was conducted to test whether alcoholic extracts of Bacopa monnieri could enhance cognitive function and prevent neurodegeneration in rats with Alzheimer’s disease induced by ethylcholine aziridinium ion (AF64A). The Morris water maze tested for the spatial memory, while histological techniques were used to monitor the density of the neurons. Results indicated that memory impairment and degeneration of neurons within the hippocampus could be lessened from administration of the herb.

Figure 8. A look at the brain of an Alzheimer's patient

The animal model for Alzheimer’s disease, in itself, was legitimate for this preliminary study, but the lack of understanding for the underlying mechanisms taken by specific constituents of Bacopa monnieri in preventing cholinergic degradation gave rise to many questions. For instance, there was no correlation between the cognitive enhancing effect and the neuroprotective effect produced by the plant extracts, which meant that there were other factors affecting the memory impairment. Additionally, because it was not known which active constituent within the herb was responsible for the nootropic activity, increasing the doses of the plant extract could have increased the concentration of all ingredients, thereby, masking the efficacy of the true active constituent. Hence, further investigations must be done to better understand the herb before examining it again in a similar animal model or even human Alzheimer patients, whose brains would have far more complex routes of nerve impulse transmission than that of rats.