Key activities

• Effects of herbal extracts with glucoregulatory properties e.g. Ginseng in neurocognitive function
• Effects of multivitamins and CoQ10 on cardiovascular function and brain health
• Neural and cognitive consequences of fish oil supplementation in an ageing population
• Efficacy and safety of brahmi (bacopa monniera) as adjunct treatment for Alzheimer's Dementia

Effects of herbal extracts with glucoregulatory properties e.g. Ginseng in neurocognitive function

• Clinical trial of acute cognitive effects of an herbal extract (S) with glucoregulatory properties - paper published in peer-reviewed journal
• Phd student (Anastasia Ossoukhova) began in June 2008.   Completed 5 studies (two cognitive evaluations of panax ginseng, also evaluation of faxinus excelsior,      rosmarinus officinalis and melissa officinalis)
• Awarded an ARC discovery grant in the area of glucoregualtion and cognition
• Results of first study (ginseng) presented at Joint Annual Conference of the Canadian Institute of Chinese Medicinal Research and the Ontario Ginseng Innovation and Research Centre (October 2008)  

Effects of multivitamins and CoQ10 on cardiovascular function and brain health

• PhD student (Renee Roswell) began in 2008 examining multivitamin effects on cognition and mood, to be completed in 2012
• Christina Kure has conducted joint Swinburne, University of Western Australia and Alfred Hospital studies assessing the relationship between cardiovascular functioning and cognition in patient groups with a view to examine the possibility of a intervention trial using some combination of multivitamins, CoQ10on cardiovascular, anti-oxidant biochemistry, cognitive and neural functioning
• Three manuscripts published and a further two submitted to peer reviewed international journals   

Neural and cognitive consequences of fish oil supplementation in an ageing population

• PhD student (Isabelle Bauer) started in late 2008
• Conducted joint study at Swinburne in the area of fish oil supplementation and cognitive and brain ageing
• MRI study assessing fish oil supplementation on the brain
• Submitted two manuscripts to peer review international journals
• Further clinical trial started examining the effects of fish oil multivitamin combination on mood, cognition and cardiovascular function
  

Efficacy and safety of brahmi (bacopa monniera) as adjunct treatment for Alzheimer's Dementia

• PhD student (Chris Neale) started in February 2009
  
• Submitted NHMRC application for sage and bacopa as adjunct treatments for Alzheimer's disease in March 2009
  
• Conducted EGG studies assessing EEG power following acute brahmi administration
  
• Conducted neuroimaging study assessing 3 month supplementation of brahmi in the elderly
  
• Applied for Ethics approval for a large scale RCT using brahmi as an adjunctive treatment for Alzheimer's dementia
  
• Christina Kure completed 18 month training as Clinical Trials Co-ordinator
  
• Applied for and received funding from ARC to conduct large scale study into the effects of 12 month brahmi supplementation on neurocognition in the elderly 

Information taken from November 2010 TCM Collaborative Centre report

Content updated June 17, 2011