PLT Health Solutions, a global ingredients company, has received a license from the Natural and Non-Prescription Health Products Directorate (NNHPD) of Health Canada to market its ingredient Nutricog Cognitive Performance Complex to support cognitive health in Canada.
Nutricog is a patented combination of Haritaki (Terminalia chebula) and Boswellia (Boswellia serrata) — standardised to gallic acid, ellagic acid and amyrins.
In a randomised, double-blind, placebo-controlled clinical trial, users of Nutricog demonstrated significant improvements compared to placebo across multiple cognitive domains, including learning, memory, sustained attention, working memory and executive function, where increases in cognitive speed were seen concurrently with improvements in accuracy while multitasking.
The list of claims approved by Health Canada for Nutricog include:
- Helps to support cognitive health and/or brain function
- Helps to support memory
- Helps to support brain function
- Helps to support working memory and immediate recall
- Helps to support cognitive health and/or brain function
- Helps to support (working) memory and immediate recall
- Helps support cognitive function such as (selective) attention
- Helps support cognitive function in older people
- Helps to support verbal and visual memory
- Helps to support learning ability
- Helps to support selective attention
- Helps to support working memory
- Helps with sleep quality over time
Seth Flowerman, President and CEO of PLT Health Solutions, the granting of an NHP license for Nutricog by Health Canada is significant for what it says about the science that supports Nutricog: “The broad range of cognitive performance benefits demonstrated in our clinical study make it ideal to support memory products, focus and attention products, general brain products and more. Health Canada has a high bar for clinically supported health claims.”
Studies demonstrate cognitive support
A randomised, double-blind, placebo-controlled clinical trial assessed Nutricog for its ability to impact learning and memory, including attention, working memory and decision-making.
100 healthy male and female subjects, aged 40-65 years, were provided 120 days of daily Nutricog or placebo and assessed for performance improvements on the Rey Auditory Verbal Learning Test (RAVLT) and the Cambridge Neuropsychological Test Automated Battery (CANTAB), both well-established and validated tools used to evaluate learning, memory and other aspects of cognitive performance.
Other measures included the Athens Insomnia Scale and biomarker testing for Brain-derived Neurotrophic Factor (BDNF).
Improvements in cognitive performance reported out from the study included:
- A 1.4x improvement in Immediate Recall*^
- A 2.3x improvement in Delayed Recall*^
- A 1.6x improvement in Overall Learning*^
- A 2.7x improvement in Learning Rate*^
- A 11.5x improvement in Focus*^
- A 2.1x improvement in Recognition Index*^
- A 2x improvement in BDNF*^
^ These outcomes were statistically significant compared to placebo in the clinical study
