Ashwagandha vs Lemon Balm

The points come from one 8-week dose-comparison RCT of an aqueous root and leaf extract at 125, 250 or 500 mg a day against placebo in adults with self-reported high stress (PMID 38732539, 131 enrolled, 98 analysed). All three doses reduced perceived stress and were reported as safe, and the authors describe the effect as dose-dependent. The abstract gives no per-dose effect sizes, so the curve shows only that ordering, not how large each step is. It also does not show whether doses above 500 mg add more. Trials of other extracts (root-only extract at 600 mg a day, PMID 23439798, and a 240 mg extract, PMID 31517876) are not on this axis because milligrams of different extracts are not equivalent.

The points come from three separate placebo-controlled trials of lemon balm extract alone, not from one trial comparing all doses. In a crossover of 18 healthy adults given single doses during a laboratory stressor, 600 mg raised self-rated calmness and eased the stressor's negative mood effects but also lowered alertness, while for 300 mg the abstract reports no mood effect, only faster mathematical processing (PMID 15272110). In 60 adults with type 2 diabetes and depressive symptoms, 700 mg a day of hydroalcoholic extract for 12 weeks lowered depression and anxiety scores more than placebo, with no difference in blood pressure or sleep quality (PMID 37131158, 44 completed). In 71 adults with benign palpitations, 500 mg twice a day of lyophilised aqueous extract for 14 days reduced the number of anxious patients compared with placebo, with no serious side effects (PMID 25680840, 55 completed). The extracts differ and so do the populations and scales, so the curve is drawn flat from 600 mg: the trials cannot show that more works better. No optimal dose has been established, and nothing above 1,000 mg of extract a day was tested alone. A lemon balm and valerian combination raised anxiety at its highest single dose (PMID 16444660), which cannot be credited to lemon balm alone.