BENFRA Research
Aging-related challenges, including alterations in mood, sleep disturbances and cognitive decline, have detrimental effects on quality of life for the elderly. Many botanical agents, including Centella asiatica (CA; “gotu kola”) and Withania somnifera (WS; “ashwagandha”), are purported to improve resilience to these changes, yet few have been evaluated in well-designed clinical trials.
The BENFRA center will examine CA and WS in preclinical research studies that will evaluate their effects, underlying mechanisms and active constituents. This information will inform the design of future clinical trials to evaluate their efficacy in humans. Ultimately these studies will lead to better formulated dietary supplements with reliable health benefits for healthy aging.
- Research goals
- Botanicals
- Research projects
- Supporting cores
Research goals
Research goals
The Center will establish a pipeline of experimental approaches and techniques to facilitate resolution of issues that are critical to the design of optimal clinical trials of botanicals that may improve resilience during aging. This research platform will be used to consolidate and expand our extensive preliminary studies on Centella asiatica in preparation for an optimized clinical trial in aging participants. View a list of publications.
A second botanical, Withania somnifera, with compelling reports of similar biological effects to CA, will enter the research pipeline at an earlier stage, again with a view to designing future optimized clinical trials.
