Bacopa Monnieri
Bacopa monnieri is a creeping wetland herb from Ayurvedic medicine, also called brahmi. Supplements use extracts of its leaves.
Also listed as Brahmi, Aindri, Lysimachia Monnieri L. Cent., Graticola Monnieri L.
Which memory skills improved?
A systematic review of six trials in adults without dementia or significant cognitive impairment found improvements on 9 of 17 free-recall memory tests. Free recall means retrieving information without prompts. Other cognitive abilities were less consistently studied and showed little evidence of improvement. 1
Could it help attention speed?
A later meta-analysis included nine trials with 518 participants and found faster performance on selected attention-related tasks. These standardized-extract studies lasted at least 12 weeks. The authors called for larger, well-designed trials before firm clinical conclusions. 2
Selected test results are encouraging, but do not establish broad everyday cognitive improvement. 2
The signal concerns speed on attention tasks rather than a demonstrated treatment for an attention disorder. 2
What is outside this review?
Brain fog, anxiety disorders and mood treatment are not separately assessed here.
Effects by health goal
Open an effect to see the studies behind its rating. Bars show the size of the effect; the letter grades the evidence.
Cognition4 effects
No study is linked to this rating.
No study is linked to this rating.
Stress & Mood2 effects
No study is linked to this rating.
All studies
3 publications are linked to Bacopa Monnieri, newest first.
Sources
- The cognitive-enhancing effects of Bacopa monnieri: a systematic review of randomized, controlled human clinical trials Journal of Alternative and Complementary Medicine, 2012 · Study record
- Meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials on cognitive effects of Bacopa monnieri extract Journal of Ethnopharmacology, 2014 · Study record