Ashwagandha is a herb that belongs to the night shade family of plants. The nightshade family of plants is a very interesting one and includes a lot of vegetables that make up large parts of many diets. Notable nightshade members are potatoes, tomatoes, chili peppers, goji berries and even tobacco! Another name for the nightshade family is Solanaceae. This is where Ashwagandha gets its Latin name from; Withania somnifera. Ashwagandha is a short perennial shrub, with a large root system that develops small deep orange fruits. The fruits resemble a small cherry and the leaves look frosty due to the many tiny hairs that are on them. This one of the reasons why Ashwagandha is also referred to as ‘winter cherry’. Traditionally, the Ashwagandha root is used, however new research has found high concentrations of key components in the leaves too. Various manufacturers have taken notice of this. One of the most notable being Natreon who produce a specialized extract of Ashwagandha called Sensoril. Sensoril is made from the leaves of Ashwagandha, giving it a unique chemical composition, which produces noticeable calming effects.

Dashmoola is mostly employed for general aches and pains, and Oroxylum indicum in general seems to be used for similar purposes even as a standalone. Furthermore, it is traditionally used to enhance digestion, respiratory function, joint comfort and skin health. 

Instead of using the roots, we instead employ the bark. The bark is a rich source of some very interesting flavonoids, the one which we are most interested in being Oroxylin A. Oroxylin A was always a very elusive compound within nootropic communities, with research about this incredible molecule being shared far and wide. If you look at the pharmacological properties of Oroxlin A, it is easy to see why it garnered so much attention! However, it was always practically impossible to get a hold of this compound. That was until Sabinsa produced a cutting edge extract of Oroxylum indicum bark, yielding a whopping 10% Oroxylin A concentration. This finally gave all of us the chance to explore the unique properties of Oroxylin A, and let’s just say, we were not disappointed after trying it out!

In the early days of natural nootropics, there were two that really stood out. Polygala tenuifolia and Oroxylin A. Both of these were reported to be significant dopamine reuptake inhibitors, while also helping to enhance neuroplasticity due to their nerve growth factor (NGF) and brain derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) boosting effects. Polygala tenuifolia was a plant we were quickly able to get a hold off, and produce a high quality extract from. However, Oroxylin A was very elusive. At the time, synthetic Oroxylin A was unobtanium level expensive (if it was even possible to make at all), and a botanical source didn’t seem to exist.

After searching for a source of Oroxylin A for many years, we were absolutely over the moon when we were able to obtain this unique Oroxylum indicum bark extract standardized to 10% oroxylin A called Sabroxy! We immediately got to beta-testing it and from the first dose we were amazed at its potency. All of those years of chasing down this compound proved to be entirely worth it! When we first got in a sample of Sabroxy we really didn’t know what to expect, but an hour after taking the first 100 mg dose, we immediately realized we were working with a genuine and effective dopamine reuptake inhibitor. Up until this point, we had not come across a natural plant extract which had such a pronounced yet clean dopaminergic effect.

We had to wait a while to see if the neuroplasticity enhancing effects were real though, but after a few weeks, we realized these effects were genuine too. The memory enhancing effects of Sabroxy were significant, but only after a few weeks. This mirrored our experience with other botanicals and fungi which produce their nootropic effects via neuroplasticity modulation, such as Bacopa monnieri and Lion’s mane.

Once the dopamine has been removed from the synaptic cleft by either of these processes, it can no longer act on the receptors of the postsynaptic neurons. In this situation, we would have to wait for another nerve impulse to trigger fresh dopamine release back into the synaptic cleft. However, if we block DAT with oroxylin A, then the dopamine can stay floating around in the synaptic cleft for a little while longer. This then means that it can bind to the postsynaptic dopamine receptor again, continuing to then generate dopaminergic signals.

If this is still a little bit too high level, we can break it down very simply. Imagine the above scenario as a bathtub. In this scenario, the bathtub is the synaptic cleft, your hand is the nerve impulse, the water coming out of the tap is dopamine, the drain is DAT and Oroxylin A is the drain stopper. So, when your hand (the nerve impulse) opens the tap, water (dopamine) immediately begins to flow out, but only a very small pool of water (dopamine) will form in the bathtub (synaptic cleft) because it is immediately being taken away into the drainage system by the open drain (DAT). If you want some water to build up in the bathtub, you can put the stopper (oroxylin A) into the drain and now the water (dopamine) is not immediately being taken away by the drain (DAT). This means that there is now much more water (dopamine) in the bathtub (synaptic cleft) than there was when the drain (DAT) was still fully open.

Extra dopaminergic signaling is important to us, because it is a major mediator of focus, motivation, memory, mood, reward and even pain! In the case of Sabroxy, we are mostly interested in its ability to enhance executive function. This translates to significantly higher levels of focus, while also being able to boost motivation. This can really come in handy either when your general level of focus is not fantastic or when you are endlessly procrastinating! No wonder elevating dopamine levels is such a popular choice amongst students who need long periods of intense focus prior to their exams!

Another very nice aspect of sabroxy, is that it fits into lots of different stacks. For example, if you’ve got a stack nicely dialed in but just need a little bit more of a dopaminergic push, then sabroxy fits in really well. Furthermore, dopamine is important for memory, so it will work very nicely in memory stacks, and surprisingly, dopamine plays a major role in pain processing so it will work well in pain stacks too. In our experience, sabroxy plays quite nicely with most botanicals and compounds, and thus, stacking with it is quite easy. Nevertheless, it can help to have a bit of inspiration, so here are a few of our favorite stacking ideas.