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Natural sports supplement formulation for physical endurance: a randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled study

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Abstract

Background

Natural ingredients have great demand to formulate the health supplements to enhance the physical endurance and stamina of any active persons. Fitnox™ is a natural ingredient formulation which contains the extracts of Kaempferia parviflora root, Punica granatum peel and Moringa oleifera leaves.

Aim

The study was designed to investigate the efficacy of Fitnox™ for physical endurance in healthy male adults before and after exercise for a period of 22 days.

Methods

Twenty four healthy male participants consumed 250 mg of either Fitnox™ or placebo (1:1 ratio) daily and they visited the clinic on day 0 and day 22 for physical examination. Serum chemistry, hematology and the levels of lactate dehydrogenase (LDH), malondialdehyde (MDA), heart rate, red blood cell (RBC) count, dopamine, nitrate and nitrite were analyzed before and after exercise on screening and final visit.

Results

There was a 31% increase in plasma nitrate before exercise and 45% after exercise for the test groups on day 22. Similarly, the nitrite content increased 49% and 47% for pre- and post-exercises, respectively, in plasma. In saliva, the concentrations of the nitrate increased 24% and 18% before and after exercise, respectively. The saliva nitrite also increased 18% and 11% in pre- and post-exercise. Moreover, the dopamine concentration is considerably increased (36%) after the administration of the Fitnox™ (P < 0.05). Serum inflammatory biomarker LDH decreased from 635 to 582 U/L (P < 0.05) in post-exercise and MDA decreased 47% in the Fitnox™ group (P < 0.01), but no considerable change in the placebo group.

Conclusions

It was concluded from the study that Fitnox™ not only increases the performance but it also reduces the oxidative stress to the muscles and tissues during exercise. There were no study-related adverse events reported between both the treatment groups and the results indicated that the Fitnox™ which enhances the physical endurance considerably.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. R&D Centre, Aurea Biolabs (P) Ltd, Kolenchery, Cochin, 682 311, Kerala, India

    Sreeraj Gopi, Joby Jacob, Karthik Varma, Augustine Amalraj & T. R. Sreeraj

  2. Department of Biosciences and Bioengineering, Indian Institute of Technology Guwahati, Guwahati, 781039, Assam, India

    Ajaikumar B. Kunnumakkara

  3. Agile Pharma Services, Bangalore, Karnataka, India

    Chandradhara Divya

Authors
  1. Sreeraj Gopi
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  2. Joby Jacob
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  3. Karthik Varma
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  4. Augustine Amalraj
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Correspondence to Sreeraj Gopi.

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The authors have declared no conflict of interest.

Ethical approval

All procedures were approved by the Clinical Trials Registry-India the identifier REF/2016/02/010815 on 27th February 2016 and were carried out in accordance with the Declaration of Helsinki.

Informed consent

Informed consent was obtained from all individual participants included in the study.

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Gopi, S., Jacob, J., Varma, K. et al. Natural sports supplement formulation for physical endurance: a randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled study. Sport Sci Health 13, 183–194 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11332-017-0352-y

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