Adaptogens

Plant extracts grouped by a claim rather than a receptor: that they raise non-specific resistance to stress without acting as a stimulant or a sedative. The category comes out of Soviet-era pharmacology and has never had a mechanism covering all of it. What sits here is ashwagandha and its withanolide withaferin A, bacoside A from Bacopa monnieri, salidroside from Rhodiola and ginsenoside Rg1 from Panax ginseng — unrelated plants with unrelated chemistries, so nothing shown for one carries to another.

The practical problem is that these are extracts, not molecules. Marker compounds vary between batches, standardisation is often nominal, and the material a reader buys need not resemble what a study used. They are not inert: ashwagandha has drawn published reports of liver injury and has sedative and thyroid effects, and several of these plants interact with sedatives, thyroid medication and immunosuppressants.