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eCAM Advance Access originally published online on December 8, 2006
eCAM 2007 4(3):375-380; doi:10.1093/ecam/nel101
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© 2006 The Author(s).
This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/2.0/uk/) which permits unrestricted non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

Adaptogenic Potential of a Polyherbal Natural Health Product: Report on a Longitudinal Clinical Trial

Dugald Seely1,2 and Rana Singh1

1The Canadian College of Naturopathic Medicine ON, Canada and 2Institute of Medical Science, University of Toronto ON, Canada

Stress is a risk factor for a number of diseases and is an important predictor of health in general. Herbal medicines have been used as adaptogens to regulate and improve the stress response and there is evidence to support the use of herbal medicines for this purpose. We conducted an open-label longitudinal study on the natural health product, OCTA©, a compound mixture of eight herbs, to determine its effects on perceptions of stress. Eighteen participants were enrolled in the study and were followed over a period of 3 months. Primary endpoints included scores from four validated questionnaires (SF-36v2, PSS, STAI and BDI-II), serum DHEA, ALT, AST and creatinine all measured at 12 weeks. Seventeen patients completed the study. Except for the physical summary score of the SF36 questionnaire, all the subjective scores indicated a highly significant (P < 0.0001) improvement in the participants' ability to cope with stress. No adverse effects were reported and there was no evidence of damage to the liver or kidney based on serum markers. Initial evidence for this polyherbal compound supports its potential as an effective ‘adaptogenic’ aid in dealing with stress. Further research using a randomized controlled design is necessary to confirm the findings from this pilot study.

Keywords: adaptogen – CAM – clinical trial – complementary and alternative medicine – herbal medicine – stress

For reprints and all correspondence: Dugald Seely, ND, Division of Clinical Epidemiology, The Canadian College of Naturopathic Medicine, 1255 Sheppard Avenue East, Toronto, ON, Canada M2K 1E2. Tel: +1-416-498-1255, ext. 387; Fax: +1-416-498-1643; E-mail: dseely{at}ccnm.edu

Received June 27, 2006; accepted October 30, 2006


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