A Pilot Study of the Acute Ingestion of No. 1 Rosemary Water

The market for herbal-based products as life and wellbeing enhancers has grown exponentially in the last twenty years—irrespective of economic down turn and recession. However, the efficacy of many of these products remains untested and claims unverified. Given the rapidly increasing value that is placed on herbal interventions by the general public it is becoming imperative that scientific assessment using well established measures and robust techniques is undertaken.

Rosemary (Rosmarinus officinalis) is a woody, perennial herb native to the Mediterranean region. Historically it has been associated with memory and more recently Rosemary aroma has been shown to deliver improvements in prospective memory, and visual and numerical memory. Also, some studies have found rosemary aroma improved aspects of performance, and produced feelings of increased alertness and reduced anxiety.

In this study, the authors investigated the potential impact of the acute ingestion of No. 1 Rosemary water—a commercially available carbonated water containing an extract of rosemary. Twenty healthy adults were randomly allocated to consume either 330 ml of No. 1 Rosemary water or plain carbonated water. They then completed a series of subjective measures and cognitive tasks including a fifteen-minute session on a stress inducing multi-tasking framework, followed by a second completion of the subjective measures. Heart rate and blood pressure were monitored throughout the procedure. Given the pilot nature of the study, analysis of the data eschewed significance testing for the calculation of Cohen’s d measure of effect sizes.

The results revealed a number of small enhancement effects on cognition, consistent with those found previously for the inhalation of the aroma of rosemary essential oil, and oral administration of dried herb. Of particular interest here were the reduced subjective evaluations of stress, and the blunted physiological reactivity noted for heart rate and blood pressure, which represented the novel findings in this area.

In conclusion, the current study adds to the growing evidence in support of the potential for enhancing memory-based aspects of cognitive functioning, improving mood especially in terms of subjective alertness and reduced stress, and perhaps even delivering cardiovascular benefits as well. Future research in this area would benefit from inclusion of bioavailability data regarding the absorption of identified active components in No. 1 Rosemary Water, in order to facilitate correlations with performance, mood and physiological data to be calculated.

Article by Mark Moss, et al, from Northumbria University, Newcastle upon Tyne, UK.

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Image by Alice Henneman, from Flickr-cc.