Maintaining good brain health throughout life is crucial for several reasons: reduces risk of cognitive decline, improves mental well-being, boosts productivity and creativity, and enhances overall quality of life.
Actually, there are many sources of unhealthy mental and emotional conditions: stress, personal worries, anxiety and bad mood, adverse global events, diet, physical discomforts, social jetlag, use of artificial light and devices: The main outcomes may be lack of sleep, focus decrease, memory loss, low impulse control, low ability to respond to stressors.
Moreover, it is proven that similar conditions are often linked to microcirculation discomforts. Microcirculation is composed of prearterioles and arterioles regulating blood flow, leading to capillaries allowing the exchange of gases, nutrients, hormones, and other molecules.
Working on such evidence, Indena has developed multiple high quality next generation extracts.
Virtiva® Plus is a proprietary synergistic formulation between Ginkgo biloba L. standardized alcoholic extract (about 25%) and lecithin (sunflower origin: about 75%), containing 20% phosphatidylserine, exploiting the synergy between these two nootropic agents. It’s standardized to contain by HPLC: ≥5% ginkgoflavonglycosides, ≥0.5% ginkgoterpenes, ≥12% phosphatidylserine.
Gingko biloba is a plant traditionally used in China since the most ancient times to improve mental functions and its bioactives are known to deliver benefits to vascular health.
Clinical evidences show that a single dose of Virtiva® Plus 480 mg has a significant effect on mental and memory performance in young subjects, particularly through consolidation of working memory and speed memory. No such benefits are evident for either Ginkgo biloba leaves standardized extract as such (GBE) or its combination with phosphatidylcholine, thus confirming the synergistic interaction between GBE and phosphatidylserine.
As a result, Virtiva® Plus effectively impacts a faster choice reaction time right after administration, leading to improved performance and safety by allowing individuals to respond more efficiently to sudden changes or challenges. Moreover, Virtiva® Plus has proven its effectiveness in positively recognizing correct hits (both delayed and immediate), leading to a directional response that is consistent with improved memory.
Mirtoselect® is an innovative standardized bilberry extract containing more than 36% of anthocyanins, characterized by a very specific and consistent HPLC profile that represents the “fingerprint” of the extract and retains all anthocyanin pattern of natural bilberry fruit. The proven benefits of these ingredients on microcirculation, vascular health and eye health (2), opened the way to a new research, currently in progress, to study the action of these extracts on cognition that is strictly linked to aspects as memory, concentration and visual acuity.
Mirtoselect® works to aid cognitive flexibility (defined as the ability to manage multiple tasks simultaneously and to quickly shift from one topic to another, supporting the decision-making process) and executive function (defined as the ability to sequence and manage multiple tasks simultaneously).
Enovita® is the result of Indena’s 40 years experience in grape seed extract production. It’s an OPCs rich grape seeds extract made exclusively with grape seeds from white wine production, exploiting an environmental friendly production. Enovita® contains a low amount (5.0-15.0%) of flavane monomers (catechin and epicatechin) and high content of oligomeric proanthocyanidins: it’s standardized to contain >95% of proanthocyanidins (spectrophotometry) and 5% -15% catechin/epicatechin (HPLC).
Indena’s grape seeds extract has benefit for cardiovascular and mental health thanks to a positive proven double effect on endothelial function and on mood:
Long-lasting supplementation of Enovita® has revealed a statistical trend on mood modulation, related to anger and depression items (3). The ingredient has also shown to be effective in positively affecting working memory and in reducing errors.
Talking about brain health also means considering emotional health. That’s why Indena’s proposal to support brain health includes also Relissa® a health food ingredient based on the formulation of Melissa officinalis with phospholipids (Melissa Indena Phytosome™) to optimize dispersion in gastrointestinal fluids and biological performance.
Melissa leaves are a traditional sleep aid, but their biological activity is mostly due to hydroxycinnamic and rosmarinic acids and derivatives. In a market scenario full of lemon balm extracts with lack of standardization, unclear dosages, poor quality standard and absent efficacy evidences, Indena’s researchers achieved the perfect formulation of melissa extract, making Relissa® a standardized, reliable, proven effective and melatonin-free supplementation to support long-lasting and deep sleeping and contrasting stress generated during the day.
Recent clinical evidence shows that this product offers a clear support to sleep quality, mood, emotional balance, mental well being and quality of life. The effective help for calmer days and more serene nights.
Moreover, the ingredient has recently won the NutraIngredients Award in the Cognitive Function category at Vitafoods 2024.
The answer are the fabulous four: Virtiva® Plus, Mirtoselect®, Enovita® and Relissa®. All from Indena, all with the quality, safety and efficacy based on science.
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