Effectiveness of Bacopa Herb for Solving Dementia in the Elderly

Abstract

Wuttiphong Phakdeekul28431* and Warinmad Kedthongma28432

Background: Dementia in the elderly has become a problem in health, medicinal plants, have been used to cure several human diseases.

Methods: The study used pretest-posttest control group design research from September 2020 to March 2021 based on phases of before and after herbal treatment. Samples were 361 elderly, randomly selected using cluster random sampling. Data were collected based on an Abbreviated Mental Test (AMT) and the Barthel index of Activities of Daily Living (ADL) which were then analyzed using Pearson’s product-moment correlation coefficient, multiple regression, and a paired t-test.

Results: The results revealed that most samples had dementia at an abnormal level (40.50%), 91.50% had no record of a relative with dementia, and had an ADL score of ‘help themselves and help others. In addition, age and stress were related to dementia in the elderly, with statistical significance at α =0.01 (r=0.224 and r=0.636, respectively). Moreover, these factors can be used to predict dementia with 51.1% (R2=0.511; p<0.0001) of the total variance of dementia in the elderly. The effectiveness of the bacopa herb was confirmed by a reduction in the dementia level from 40.50% to only 24.68% (p<0.0001) and the ADL was increased to 89.24% (p<0.0001).

Conclusion: Age and stress had a major effect on dementia. Therefore, a daily capsule that contains the herbs Bacopa monnieri and Centella asiatica and germinating rice and turmeric could benefit brain activity, which were supported by increases in AMT and ADL.