Table 3. Assessment of biomarkers of inflammation and muscle status in healthy volunteers in the placebo and Ashwagandha groups.

WS=Ashwagandha extract, P=placebo

* Represents a p-value<0.05 on the Friedman test where a comparison of the placebo arm (within the group) is carried with a baseline visit;

# Represents a p-value<0.05 on the Friedman test where a comparison of the Ashwagandha extract arm (within the group) is carried with a baseline visit;

$ represents p<0.05 on a comparison between the Ashwagandha extract and placebo groups (between the groups) for that particular visit on the Mann-Whitney U test

Serum CPK, serum LDH, serum myostatin: assessed on day seven (screening visit), day one, day 30, and day 60 post-exercise; day seven indicated the pre-exercise values.

Serum hs-CRP, serum IL-6, and serum TNF-α: assessed on days one, 30, and 60 before exercise

No.	Variable	Day -7 (Screening) Mean ± SD		Day 1 Mean ± SD		Day 30 Mean ± SD		Day 60 Mean ± SD
		P n=24	WS n=27	P n=24	WS n=27	P n=24	WS n=27	P n=24	WS n=27
1	High-sensitivity C-reactive protein (mg/L)			1.08 ± 1.02	2.28 ± 3.85	2.08 ± 2.54	2.06 ± 2.55	4.6 ± 9.2*	1.76 ± 2.23
2	Interleukin-6 (pg/mL)			7.72 ± 8.91	14.98 ± 21.3	5.74 ± 4.81	6.19 ± 4.89#	5.65 ± 4.25	7.2 ± 6.45
3	Tumour necrosis factor-α (pg/mL)			12.6 ± 13.78	12.43 ± 11.6	10.44 ± 6.29	9.25 ± 5.05	10.74 ± 9.72	8.05 ± 2.65
4	Serum myostatin (ng/mL)	5.64 ± 8.44	6.81 ± 8.09	5.74 ± 8.73	6.5 ± 8.58	4.89 ± 6.87	6.37 ± 8.29	5.47 ± 8.39	5.9 ± 7.6
5	Serum creatine phosphokinase (U/L)	132.27 ± 23.78	125.35 ± 31	137.91 ± 34.12	135.2 ± 25.98	142.24 ± 34.04	131.02 ± 39.21	160.59 ± 45.99*	145.41 ± 22.68#
6	Lactate dehydrogenase (IU/L)	367.28 ± 95.39	390.55 ± 96.77	362.76 ± 84.59	396.9 ± 67.91	354.77 ± 75.72	391.76 ± 79.6	412.93 ± 136.12*	408.52 ± 109.02