KSM-66 Ashwagandha Shows Anti-Aging Effect on Chromosomes in New Study

Photo © iStockphoto.com/Сергей Хакимуллин

Ashwagandha’s (Withania somnifera) potential anti-aging health benefits have attracted researchers’ attention for many years now, but a recent study on Ixoreal Biomed’s (Los Angeles) KSM-66 ashwagandha root extract may be shedding new light on the mechanism by which the adaptogenic herb affects human cells. The in vitro study found that cells treated with KSM-66 showed a significant increase in telomerase activity, a ribonucleoproten that may help ameliorate the effects of aging.

Writing in Advances in Bioscience and Biotechnology, researchers exposed human HeLa cells to KSM-66 ashwagandha concentrations of 10 μg, 50 μg, 100 μg, 500 μg, or 5 mg. They then studied the effect of ashwagandha on telomerase, a ribonucleoproten that can arrest telomere loss. Telomeres, which are located at the end of human chromosomes, can shorten as we age, accelerating the aging process and “consequent degeneration of various physiological systems,” Ixoreal Biomed explains in the study announcement. But telomerase may curb this process and therefore lessen some of these anti-aging effects.

Researchers found that the HeLa cells treated with ashwagandha in doses ranging from 10–50 μg concentrations showed an enhancement of approximately 45% in telomerase activity. Based on the findings they concluded that “thus, ashwagandha root extract has the anti-aging inducing potential.”

“Ashwagandha has traditionally been used as an anti-aging agent, but there are only a few modern published papers studying such effects,” says Kartikeya Baldwa, director of Ixoreal Biomed, in the study announcement. “This is the first published study to use a standardized, branded ashwagandha extract that shows an anti-aging effect with a telomerase promotion effect in the human cell line.”

A previously published animal study found KSM-66 supplementation led to significant lifespan and activity expansion in roundworms (Caenorhabditis elegans), Baldwa notes, although “this present study goes deeper in that it posits the mechanism by which KSM-66 can serve as an anti-aging agent in humans.”

He adds that with the addition of this latest study, there are now a total of 15 studies on KSM-66 ashwagandha.

Read more:

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KSM-66 Ashwagandha May Improve Sexual Function, Satisfaction in Women

Ashwagandha Reduces Stress-Induced Food Cravings in New Study

Michael Crane
Associate Editor
Nutritional Outlook Magazine
michael.crane@ubm.com