The Clinical Efficacy and Safety of Tulsi in Humans: A Systematic Review of the Literature

Table 3

Therapeutic effects of tulsi on cognitive function, mood, and stress in human clinical trials.

Clinical; domain	Authors; (year)	Study design	Jadad; score	Participants (age range)	Tulsi; extract	Intervention		Comparator	Outcome; measure(s)	Adverse; events (s)
						Duration	Dosage
Neurocognition	Sampath et al. (2015) [81]	Randomized,; double-blind,; placebo controlled; clinical trial	5	40 healthy; adults; (18–30 years)	Ethanolic; tulsi leaves; capsules	4 weeks	300 mg/day; before meals	Cellulose; capsules	Cognitive flexibility,; attention, Improved; working memory; only after day 15	None
	Saxena et al. (2012) [82]	Randomized,; double-blind,; placebo-controlled	4	150 adults,; stress; (18–65 years)	OCIBEST^†; whole plant; capsules	6 weeks	400 mg; 3 times/day; after meals	Cellulose; capsules	Reduction in stress; related symptoms: fatigue, sleep and; sexual problems	None
	Verma^‡ et al. (2012) [72]	Clinical trial	0	24 adults,; psychosomatic; (60–80 years)	powder; whole plant; tulsi	12 weeks	3 g × 2/day	None	Reduced anxiety; significantly lowered; biological age score	None
	Bhattacharyya et al. (2008) [83]	Clinical trial	1	35 adults; with GAD; (18–60 years)	Ethanolic; tulsi leaves; capsules	8 weeks	500 mg; 2x daily; after meals	None	Self-reported; questionnaire,; ↓anxiety, stress, &; depression	None

GAD = generalized anxiety disorder.
Intervention duration is the time the intervention was administered excluding any washout periods.
Participants include both control and intervention groups completing the study and excluded any drop-outs.
^†OCIBEST is product of natural remedies and contains tulsi whole plant.
^‡Authors also reported findings from glucose and lipid profile for 5 of the participants and found lipid profile significantly improved.