Evaluation of triple combination of honey-saffron-sedge on mental performance of university students; A pilot study

Abstract

Background: Mental performance improvement has been among the entities with considerable attention by scientists since long time ago. Nowadays, tendency to use of chemicals, and sometimes detrimental agents, has increased. This is while hypothesis has been raised about the use of natural agents such as honey, saffron, and sedge to improve mental performance, based on their antioxidant and alkaloid ingredients. The current study aimed to assess the efficacy of triple combination of honey-saffron-sedge on university students’ mental performance. Methods: This was a pilot-controlled clinical trial study conducted on 60 students of Isfahan University of Medical Sciences, Isfahan, Iran, in years 2017-18. Students were randomly divided into two 30-member groups of intervention (30 mg saffron, 5 g honey, and 500 mg sedge) and control (500 mg starch and 5 g sugar). Students’ normal diet was recorded in nutrition checklist by students in three consecutive days prior to study initiation, and then three consecutive days immediately following intervention cessation, and the micronutrients of two groups were compared and matched using Nutritionist software. Participants used mentioned agents twice a day for a period of two months. The Auditory-Visual Learning Test (AVLT) test was conducted and compared before and after two months for students. Findings: There were no significant differences between the two groups regarding age and gender (P > 0.05). Moreover, in terms of micronutrients, the diet of the two groups was matched (P > 0.05). According to VALT test, two groups were different in the subtests of recall following second time of words reading (P = 0.004) for the control group before and after the test, but not intervention group. There was no significant difference between the two groups in any fields of VALT (P > 0.05). Conclusion: Two-month use of triple combination of honey-saffron-sedge in students did not improve mental performance on the basis of VALT’s questionnaire compared with the control group. There is little information in this regard, and further studies using new doses, conducting on greater number of majors and varieties of communities, and by use of more various mental assessing tests are recommended. © 2019, Isfahan University of Medical Sciences(IUMS). All rights reserved.