NCT03596307

The Effects of Ashwagandha in Endurance Exercise Performance

The Effects of Ashwagandha In Endurance Exercise Performance

• Status: Unknown
• Phase: N/A
• Study type: Interventional
• Enrollment: 12 (estimated)
• Sponsor: Arjuna Natural Limited · Industry
• Sex: Male
• Age: 18 Years – 35 Years
• Healthy volunteers: Accepted

Summary

Ashwagandha (Withania Somnifera) is a widely used herb in Ayurvedic medicine for vitality and rejuvenation. This study investigates the effects of both acute and short-term oral supplementation of Shoden (Ashwagandha extract) intake on performance and rate of perceived exertion in high-intensity aerobic and anaerobic exercise.

Detailed description

Only a few clinical trials have looked at the effects of Ashwagandha in exercise and training. The studies had a dosage of 2 x 300 mg \& 2 x 500 mg per day for 8 weeks and found to stimulate effects of strength training on muscle strength and muscle mass (Wankhede et al., 2015) and small increments in time to exhaustion and VO2max (Shenoy et al., 2012). However, the training intervention in both the studies were not adequately controlled and did not make a distinction between the acute and short-term effects of Ashwagandha intake. Moreover, a lot of herbal supplements are commercially available containing majority of alkaloids and small amount of withaferine. European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) has categorized anaferine, anahygrine, withanine, sominiferine, somnine, tropine etc as toxic and harmful. Apart from alkaloids, withaferine A has also been categorized as cytotoxic lactones by EFSA. The Ashwagandha extract developed by Arjuna Natural Ltd is free from these alkaloids and is standardized to contain about 35% glycowithanolides. This study will be a randomized, double blinded, placebo controlled, two treatment, crossover study and will be conducted in 2 phases ( acute \& short term) with a total of 5 identical test sessions. Each test session involves a maximal incremental cycling test followed by a 90-sec maximal cycling performance test (day 1), and a 30-min simulated time-triaI on a cycling ergometer (day 2). Day 1 and day 2 are separated by a 24hr rest interval and for each subject it will be consistently scheduled on the same time of the day in order to eliminate a potential impact of diurnal variation in the results.

Conditions

• Healthy

Interventions

Type	Name	Description
DIETARY_SUPPLEMENT	Ashwagandha extract	Shoden 180 mg capsule.
DIETARY_SUPPLEMENT	Placebo	Placebo 180 mg (Sucrose) capsule.

Timeline

• Start date: 2018-08-06
• Primary completion: 2018-12-01
• Completion: 2019-06-01
• First posted: 2018-07-23
• Last updated: 2018-11-26

Locations

1 site across 1 country: Belgium