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.