Shankhpushpi for Anxiety Relief

Research suggests that Shankhpushpi, most commonly identified botanically as Convolvulus pluricaulis, demonstrates anxiolytic properties across a range of preclinical study designs, including rodent behavioral tests such as the elevated plus maze and hole board paradigms, zebrafish models, Drosophila genetic models, and computational pharmacology analyses, with the collective body of evidence pointing in a consistently supportive direction. Studies indicate that the herb's anxiety-reducing effects appear to involve modulation of GABA receptor pathways, particularly GABA-A and GABA-B receptors, and one study specifically observed these effects in the context of alcohol withdrawal anxiety, while a 2022 umbrella review noted that network pharmacology analyses also implicate serotonergic signaling. A 2011 comparative study found that two related plants sometimes sold under the same Ayurvedic name, Evolvulus alsinoides and Clitoria ternatea, showed additional antidepressant activity that C. pluricaulis did not, suggesting that botanical identity matters when interpreting findings across the literature. Importantly, the available evidence is almost entirely preclinical, with no robust randomized controlled trials in humans identified among the reviewed studies, meaning it remains unclear whether these effects translate meaningfully to human anxiety, and readers should treat these findings as preliminary rather than conclusive.