Ingredient news
Scallop Plasmalogen Trial Reports Verbal Memory Gain in Older Adults
By Nutranexa News |
A 12-week randomized trial in healthy Japanese adults aged 40 and older linked daily scallop-derived plasmalogens to higher verbal memory scores than placebo.
What the Trial Tested
Researchers randomized 68 healthy Japanese adults aged 40 and older with below-average verbal memory at baseline to receive either 1 mg per day of scallop-derived plasmalogens or placebo for 12 weeks. The primary outcome was the standardized verbal memory score from the web-based Cognitrax battery, with attention domains and plasma BDNF among secondary measures.
The trial is registered as UMIN000057985 and was published in Frontiers in Nutrition.
Results
Among 66 participants included in the analysis, standardized verbal memory scores were significantly higher in the plasmalogen group than in the placebo group (estimated mean difference 10.1; 95% CI 0.4-19.9; p = 0.042). Selected attention-related domains also improved more in the supplemented group, while plasma BDNF rose in both groups with no significant between-group difference.
The authors describe the attention findings as exploratory and note that no adverse events or clinically meaningful safety concerns were reported.
Buyer Takeaway
Ether phospholipid ingredients such as plasmalogens remain an active area of cognitive research, but this is a single small trial. Buyers evaluating similar ingredients should ask suppliers for the full study record, dose justification, population match, and registered trial details before building claim or dossier documents.
Nutranexa does not supply plasmalogens and makes no claim about this study's findings beyond what the authors reported.