WATCH: Resting state: Adaptogens and spices for sleep aid and stress relief benefits

This is in contrast to the current market trends, where most of such products, especially those for sleep aid, contain melatonin.

Nutraceutical brand BodyFirst last year launched​ a product containing the adaptogen ashwagandha for addressing stress and anxiety symptoms.

It uses a proprietary ashwagandha root extract trademarked KSM-66​ developed by Ixoreal Biomed.

“The extraction [of the ashwagandha root] is carried through milk, where there is no synthetic solvent or alcohol used to extract ashwagandha – which is a strong adaptogen positioned for sleep, stress, cardio-respiratory functions, memory and cognition, and anti-ageing,” ​Sandeep Gupta, chief mentor and strategist at Bodyfirst Wellness Nutrition said.

On the other hand, Akay Natural Ingredients has developed a sleep aid ingredient trademarked BlaQmax based on black cumin.

A pilot human clinical study has showed that the patented ingredient could reduce cortisol level, increase non rapid eye movement (non-REM) sleep and rapid eye movement (REM) sleep by 82 per cent and 30 per cent respectively.

“We recruited mild to moderate insomnia subjects and the BlaQmax at 200mg per day for 28 days significantly improved the total sleep time, reduced sleep latency, and reduced sleep disturbances and increased deep sleep time,”​ Dr Krishnakumar IM, chief research officer at Akay Natural Ingredients said.

He added that the ingredient would be launched by a number of companies in the US and Northern Asia in the form of capsules and soft gels.

Watch the video to find out more.