Plant extract cocktail combo can alleviate hangover symptoms, German study finds
06 May 2020 --- Plant extracts may be the key element to softening the blow of hangovers, with a new German study finding that in combination with vitamins and minerals, they help alleviate hangover-related headaches by 34 percent and nausea by 42 percent. In contrast, vitamins and minerals alone do not lead to any statistically significant improvement in hangover symptoms. Study co-author Dr. Patrick Schmitt tells NutritionInsight how this research may provide a novel strategy to the alcohol industry which has been dented by coronavirus lockdowns and quarantine measures.
“The next step is to figure out which exact ingredients of the plant extracts are responsible for these measurements. There might be an additive ingredient that can be added to alcoholic beverages in general, which would act like a kind of ‘airbag’ for drinkers and would make alcohol consumption safer. Also, this might be a differentiator for companies in the decreasing alcohol industry,” foresees Dr. Schmitt, researcher at the Institute of Molecular Physiology at Johannes Gutenberg-University in Mainz, Germany.
Dr. Schmitt expects alcoholic intake to increase during pandemic-induced global lockdowns. He further highlights how, historically, crises have “always led to an increase of drug and alcohol abuse.” Moreover, the UK-based Institute for Alcohol Studies (IAS) calculated the cost of workplace hangovers to the UK economy up to £1.4 billion (US$1.7 billion) a year. “Those numbers are expected to increase through the current global pandemic,” Dr. Schmitt predicts.
This research comes at a time when many adult drinks have been getting a healthy makeover as younger consumers opt for low- and no-alcohol takes on spirits, beer and wine.
Cheers to plants, leaves and herbs
The double-blind study recruited 214 healthy men and women aged 18 to 65 years who were divided into three different supplement groups. The placebo supplement contained glucose while the vitamin and minerals supplement consisted of magnesium, potassium, zinc, riboflavin, thiamine hydrochloride and folic acid. The FSMP dietary supplement comprised Barbados cherry, prickly pear, ginkgo biloba, willow and ginger root extracts in addition to the aforementioned vitamins and minerals as well as glucose.
The test subjects received their respective premix solution containing the supplement in 7.5 g powder form dissolved in 100 mL of water 45 minutes before and immediately after the participants drank alcohol. They could decide for themselves how much (mixed) beer, wine or white wine spritzer they wanted to drink during the four-hour consumption phase. After a 12-hour recuperation period, the participants reported a total of 47 hangover symptoms, ranging from exhaustion to memory problems to disorientation.
The intervention groups were also asked how much they observed the perceived effects of the received intervention on a scale from 0 (no effect) to 10 (extremely strong effect). The FSMP group reported a 4.22 mean, followed by placebo (3.10) and vitamins and minerals (2.67). For all three groups, the average alcohol consumption rate was 0.62 mL of alcohol per minute.
The study did not find drinking water to significantly alleviate hangover symptoms the next day. Dr. Schmitt affirms that simply eating more fruit before and during alcohol consumption is unlikely to alleviate next-day hangover symptoms due to their low bioavailability. “Many natural plant compounds can not be sufficiently absorbed by the body. Therefore, a specific formulation that raises bioavailability is often required and pre-formulated products combine bioavailability and standardized dosage. That ensures that the intake is effective and safe,” he explains.
No effect of water on wine
Having analyzed nearly 600 scientific papers on hangover treatments, Schmitt states he was “not surprised” by the study’s findings. However, he did not expect that the amount of body water and drinking water has less influence on hangovers. Indeed, no statistically significant relationship between the variation of body water content and alcohol consumption was found in the study participants.
Regardless, Dr. Schmitt stresses that his findings should “absolutely not” discourage consumers from drinking water pre-, during and post-alcohol consumption. “Drinking water is always important. But everybody should know that drinking any amount of water will not improve hangover symptoms.”
In the meantime, industry has tried to mitigate hangover symptoms by providing veisalgia-alleviating solutions to hangover sufferers. A hangover-alleviating probiotic called ZBiotics hit the US market last August, while Nilo Brands introduced its vegan Nilo Hangover Recovery, containing Japanese tree-derived antioxidants. The supplement gummy from Top Gum Medical was spotted at last year’s Vitafoods Asia event, which is touted as helping the brain and the nerve system go back to normal and work faster after the consumption of alcohol.
By Anni Schleicher
