ABSTRACT
In recent times, there is a renewed interest of herbal tea because of growing consumer awareness for the health benefits of herbal tea consumption in the covid era. Bacopa monnieri is a natural medicine mainly used to enhance nerve impulse transmission, improves memory and mental function as well as the enhancement of other cognitive function because of the presence of triterpenoid saponins and bacoside A. The present experiment was conducted for the development of herbal tea with known health benefits from Bacopa monnieri using different spices or herbal ingredients combinations, i.e., Pepper, cardamom, and ginger to increase its aesthetic properties. A higher sensory score for pepper-brahmi was found superior with 8.71 (colour), 8.43 (aroma), 8.43 (taste), 8.29 (after taste), and 8.46 (overall acceptability) over three combinations and control. Jal brahmi tisane revealed, 0.036 ± 0.0004 mg/100 ml Bacoside A, 87.72 mg TE/100 ml TAC, 106.02 mg GAE/100 ml TPC, 21,100 µg/100 ml calcium, and 87 µg/100 ml iron, which is essentially good for human health. Supplementary Information: The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s13197-022-05532-y.
ABSTRACT
Introduction: Despite overall impact on health during COVID-19, mental health was least explored to assess psychological wellbeing. Hence, this study to screen the symptoms of depression, anxiety, and stress among adolescents and adults and evaluate the effectiveness of Ayurveda herbal intervention becomes relevant. This study examined the effectiveness of Brahmi (Bacopa monnieri (L.) Pennell) in reducing depression, anxiety, and stress among populations aged between 12 to 60 years in COVID-19 negative patients Hassan district of Karnataka State, India after screening them for psychological distress. Methods: 198 eligible participants (140 female and 58 male) selected by Depression Anxiety and Stress Scale-21 (DASS-21) was used to evaluate depression, anxiety, and stress from 1657 screened participants at baseline. Two 500 mg capsule of Brahmi (Bacopa monnieri (L.) Pennell) was administered twice daily after food in morning and night for 30 days. Paired t-test, and Wilcoxon signed rank test was applied to see the change in each DASS-21 indicator after intervention. Results: At the DASS-21, 4.09% of the responders presented pathological levels of depression, 10.85% of anxiety, and 0.72% of stress among general population. Significant decrease in means were found for scales of depression, anxiety, stress and total DASS-21 after intervention (p<0.001) with Brahmi for a period of 1 month Conclusion: The population during COVID-19 experienced mild to moderate levels of anxiety, depression and stress. This study result highlights the effectiveness of Brahmi in improving the psychological health during COVID-19. These results have important implications in clinical practice in improving psychological health in the context of COVID-19 pandemic. Trial Registration: CTRI/2020/07/026952. Available at: http://www.ctri.nic.in. Keywords: COVID-19, DASS-21, psychological health, depression, anxiety, stress, Brahmi, Bacopa monnieri