10.27.22
A corn leaf extract marketed by Unigen as Maizinol was recently linked to improvements in sleep quality in a population of 45 healthy volunteers in a study appearing in the Journal of Medical Food.
Participants were administered either a placebo or a daily dose of 250 or 500 mg daily of Maizinol before bed for a duration of four weeks. Sleep quality was monitored with a fitness tracker, and the volunteers participated in the Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index for sleep quality and efficiency, and the Profile of Mood States for general wellbeing. Salivary cortisol levels were also monitored in order to evaluate stress.
“At the conclusion of the study, we found that our standardized corn leaf extract Maizinol improved sleep quality by increasing the deep sleep stage of sleep by almost half an hour, compared to about a four-minute increase in the placebo group,” said Lidia Brownell, vice president of clinical research and regulatory compliance at Unigen. “It is commonly believed that a person should have reached at least 90 minutes of total deep sleep time to achieve a good quality sleep, and the subjects taking Maizinol were able to do that.”
“Researchers tracking the salivary cortisol levels found that participants supplementing with Maizinol were able to better maintain healthy cortisol levels and so were less likely to experience premature waking,” said Dr. Qi Jia, CEO. “Adding this study to our previous research, we have a great opportunity here to offer consumers a natural, efficacious alternative for a less stressful, more restorative sleep.”
Unigen has plans to showcase Maizinol and debut a new corn-derived ingredient, SerenZea, at SupplySide West 2022 in Las Vegas. SerenZea is formulated for similar purposes – to reduce cortisol levels, regulate serotonin biosynthesis, and inhibit tryptophan dioxygenase, all of which may have an impact on mood and stress. SerenZea was developed from mood and stress research collected in two human clinical trials, and data published in two peer reviewed papers, according to Jia.
Participants were administered either a placebo or a daily dose of 250 or 500 mg daily of Maizinol before bed for a duration of four weeks. Sleep quality was monitored with a fitness tracker, and the volunteers participated in the Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index for sleep quality and efficiency, and the Profile of Mood States for general wellbeing. Salivary cortisol levels were also monitored in order to evaluate stress.
“At the conclusion of the study, we found that our standardized corn leaf extract Maizinol improved sleep quality by increasing the deep sleep stage of sleep by almost half an hour, compared to about a four-minute increase in the placebo group,” said Lidia Brownell, vice president of clinical research and regulatory compliance at Unigen. “It is commonly believed that a person should have reached at least 90 minutes of total deep sleep time to achieve a good quality sleep, and the subjects taking Maizinol were able to do that.”
“Researchers tracking the salivary cortisol levels found that participants supplementing with Maizinol were able to better maintain healthy cortisol levels and so were less likely to experience premature waking,” said Dr. Qi Jia, CEO. “Adding this study to our previous research, we have a great opportunity here to offer consumers a natural, efficacious alternative for a less stressful, more restorative sleep.”
Unigen has plans to showcase Maizinol and debut a new corn-derived ingredient, SerenZea, at SupplySide West 2022 in Las Vegas. SerenZea is formulated for similar purposes – to reduce cortisol levels, regulate serotonin biosynthesis, and inhibit tryptophan dioxygenase, all of which may have an impact on mood and stress. SerenZea was developed from mood and stress research collected in two human clinical trials, and data published in two peer reviewed papers, according to Jia.