Shankhpushpi

Proposed mechanism

Shankhpushpi here means Convolvulus pluricaulis, one of several plants sold under that common name. Its coumarins — chiefly scopoletin — inhibit acetylcholinesterase, the enzyme that clears acetylcholine, in rodent and zebrafish studies; in aluminum-exposed rats an aqueous extract lowered the elevated enzyme and helped preserve suppressed cholinergic gene expression (choline acetyltransferase, M1 receptor), a rescue effect rather than a boost to acetylcholine synthesis. The direction is not settled: other animal work found acetylcholinesterase activity increased, and one comparison ranked C. pluricaulis the weakest inhibitor of the four botanicals sold as shankhpushpi. Scopoletin also inhibits monoamine oxidase, but as a partially selective MAO-B inhibitor (roughly 3.5-fold over MAO-A) that raised striatal dopamine in mice at high isolated-compound doses — not an MAO-A/serotonin effect, though a 2025 mouse study of the isolated compound did also report reduced MAO-A activity and restored serotonin. Convolamine, an alkaloid from the plant, acts on the sigma-1 receptor in zebrafish and mice. No published research supports a distinctive effect on brain protein synthesis during sleep. All mechanistic evidence is preclinical; the few small human studies measured memory or symptom scores, not brain chemistry.

Mechanisms describe how researchers think a compound may act, often from laboratory work — a proposed mechanism is not proof of a clinical effect in people.