Ashwagandha is one of the most important herbs in Ayurveda, which is the traditional system of medicine in India. It has been used for thousands of years to promote overall well-being, a more youthful state of mental and physical health, and improved mood. It acts as an adaptogen and anti-stress agent.
Ashwagandha is often used as a fine powder mixed with water, honey, or ghee. It enhances the function of the nervous system and brain. It improves memory and promotes a healthy sexual and reproductive balance. Its effects as an adaptogen help build the body’s resilience to stress, and it improves cell-mediated immunity thereby improving your body’s defense system. In addition, ashwagandha has potent antioxidant properties that help protect against cellular damage caused by free radicals.
Let’s take a deeper look at both the traditional and modern uses of this very useful herb.
The active compounds in ashwagandha
The active compounds in ashwagandha include alkaloids, steroidal lactones, and saponins. The anti-stress compounds in ashwagandha are sitoindosides and acylsterylglucosides. Many of the elements of ashwagandha have potent anti-stress capabilities (Bhattacharya et al., 1987). Many of its components support immunomodulatory actions (Ghosal et al., 1989).
Traditional use of ashwagandha in ayurveda
Ayurveda goes back at least to 6,000 BCE, and for most of these thousands of years, the herb has been made into a fine powder to be mixed with ghee, honey, or water. The root of Ashwagandha is regarded as tonic, aphrodisiac, narcotic, diuretic, anthelmintic, astringent, thermogenic, and stimulant.
Traditionally, it has been used to treat emaciation in children, rheumatism, constipation, insomnia, goiter, nervous breakdown, and feebleness due to old age. In addition, it has been used to treat inflammation of the joints, ulcers, and swelling. The Nagori Ashwagandha offers the most potency among all the ashwagandha varieties. It’s best to use ashwagandha powder that is fresh for optimum benefits. Ayurveda practice has also used ashwagandha for hysteria, anxiety, memory loss, and syncope. It also acts as a stimulant and increases the sperm count.
The effects of ashwagandha on various systems and conditions
Central nervous system and cognition
Ashwagandha belongs to a sub-group of Rasayanas known as Medhyarasayanas. Medhya refers to the mind and mental capacity. Thus, ashwagandha is used to enhance intellect and memory. The cognition-promoting effect is best seen in children with memory deficiencies, when memory is harmed from a head injury, prolonged illness, and in old age.
Parkinson’s, Huntington’s, and Alzheimer’s diseases
In patients with Alzheimer’s disease, neuritic atrophy and synaptic loss are the major causes of cognitive impairment. In patients with other neurodegenerative diseases like Huntington’s, Creutzfeldt-Jakob, and Parkinson’s, the atrophy of neurites is a significant part of the etiology (origin or cause of the disease). Many studies show that ashwagandha slows, stops, reverses, or removes neuritic atrophy and synaptic loss.
Ashwagandha can be used to treat Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s, Huntington’s, and other neurodegenerative diseases at any stage of the disease, even before a person has been diagnosed and is still in the state of mild forgetfulness. Glycowithanolides withaferin- A and sitoindosides VII–X isolated from the roots of Ashwagandha significantly reversed ibotenic acid-induced cognitive defects in the Alzheimer’s disease model (Bhattacharya et al., 1995).
Treatment with ashwagandha extract was found to prevent changes in antioxidant enzyme activities, catecholamine content, dopaminergic D2 receptor binding, and tyrosine hydroxylase expression induced by 6-hydroxydopamine (6-OHDA) in rats (an animal model of Parkinson’s disease). Ashwagandha may be helpful in protecting against neuronal injury in Parkinson’s.
Adaptogen and anti-stress effects
Ashwagandha can be as effective in its adaptogenic properties as Siberian Ginseng and Panax Ginseng. Many studies support this conclusion. In addition, studies show that ashwagandha can be effective at increasing stamina and preventing stress-induced gastric ulcers, carbon tetrachloride (CCl4) induced hepatotoxicity, and mortality. In studies with rats, ashwagandha has an anti-stress activity. And ashwagandha may be used in the prevention and treatment of stress-induced diseases such as premature aging, arteriosclerosis, diabetes, hypertension, arthritis, and cancer.
Effect on cortisol and ascorbic acid content of adrenals
In a study with rats exposed to physical stress, the cortisol and ascorbic acid content of adrenals was maintained when they received pretreatment with ashwagandha. This is in contrast to stress-reducing those levels in rats exposed to physical stress without any treatment. Ashwagandha appears to prevent the decrease in adrenal cortisol and ascorbic acid due to physical stress.
Anxiolytic effect
Ashwagandha induced a calming anxiolytic effect that was comparable to the drug Lorazepam in the three most common anxiety tests: the elevated plus-maze, social interaction, and the feeding latency in an unfamiliar environment. Both ashwagandha and lorazepam reduced rat brain levels of tribulin, an endocoid marker of clinical anxiety when the levels were increased following administration of the anxiogenic agent, pentylenetetrazole.
Ashwagandha also exhibited an antidepressant effect, comparable with that induced by imipramine, in two standard tests, the forced swim-induced ‘behavioral despair’ and ‘learned helplessness’ tests. The investigations support the use of Ashwagandha as a mood stabilizer in clinical conditions of anxiety and depression.
Anti-arthritic effect
Ashwagandha is an analgesic that soothes the nervous system from pain response. The powerful anti-arthritic properties of ashwagandha are now widely accepted and documented; it is also found to be effective as an antipyretic (fever-reducing) as well as an analgesic.
Ashwagandha produced significant analgesic activity for a rat experiencing heat analgesia. The peak analgesic effect of ashwagandha was recorded as 78.03 percent at the 2nd hour of administration. The study also looked at the pain mediators, prostaglandin and 5-hydroxytryptamine in the analgesic activity of ashwagandha. The analgesic activity of ashwagandha was potentiated significantly by cyproheptadine. However, paracetamol did not exhibit any significant change in its activity. This may be due to the involvement of serotonin, but not prostaglandins, in the analgesic properties of ashwagandha.
Final thoughts
Despite thousands of years of non-scientific evidence that clearly shows the effectiveness of ashwagandha, researchers have devoted considerable time and resources to conducting scientific studies to bolster the evidence. Ashwagandha has been shown to be a potent regenerative compound with multiple pharmacological actions like anti-stress, neuroprotective, antitumor, anti-arthritic, analgesic, and anti-inflammatory. It is useful for different types of diseases like Parkinson’s, dementia, memory loss, stress-induced diseases, malignant tumors, and more.
Ayurveda supports the use of ashwagandha as a tonic for old people and children. It is recommended as an aphrodisiac for young adults. It is an effective nervous system treatment, and it has been used safely since at least 6,000 BCE. It is used to treat neurological conditions, brain strokes causing paralysis, and neuronal deficit, which improves with long-term treatment with ashwagandha. It is used in treating cancers, and it is one of six essential medicinal herbs.
The traditional use of ashwagandha has its roots in logic and science. Conducting large-scale clinical studies will help bolster the evidence of the clinical efficacy of this herb especially in treating stress-related diseases, neuronal disorders, and cancers.