BENFRA poster presentations

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Presenter is bolded.

American Society of Pharmacognosy Annual Meeting, Grand Rapids, Michigan, August 2-6, 2025

Evaluation of Fasted and Fed Gastrointestinal Transformation of Withania somnifera Plant Extracts and Bioactive Compounds via UPLC MS/MS and Untargeted Metabolomics 

Sarah Barr, Melissa Bollen, Amala Soumyanath, R. Thomas Williamson, and Wendy Strangman

Identification and Quantitation of Bioactive Alkaloids in Withania Somnifera Using High Resolution Mass Spectrometry and Multiple Reaction Monitoring 

Rudranil Dutta, Luke Marney, Jaewoo Choi, Liping Yang, Amala Soumyanath, Jan F. Stevens, Claudia S. Maier

A Tropane Alkaloid Found in Withania somnifera (Ashwagandha) Root Promotes Resilience to Stress Induced Depression-Like Behavior in Drosophila Melanogaster

Amala Soumyanath, Helen Holvoet, Mikah Brandes, Jesus Martinez, Rudranil Dutta, Luke Marney, Jaewoo Choi, Liping Yang, Hailey Shreffler, Burkhard Poeck, Roland Strauss, John Cort, Jan F. Stevens, Claudia S. Maier, Doris Kretzschmar

Triterpenes and Caffeoylquinic Acids from Centella Asiatica Contribute to its Beneficial Effects on Age-Related Changes in Learning, Memory, and Anxiety 

Lucas Kuhnau, Wyatt Hack, Jesus Martínez, Arshia Sohal, Amala Soumyanath, Nora Gray

Human Plasma Pharmacokinetics, Metabolism, and Urinary Excretion of Withanolides from an Ashwagandha Supplement 

Alex Speers, Axel Lozano-Ortiz, Ella Limoico, Amala Soumyanath

A 1H NMR Spin Network Fingerprint Library to Support Mass Spectrometry-Based Identification of Bioactive Compounds in the Botanical Supplement 

Centella asiatica

Sara Neiheisel, Korydwen Terrasson, Aubrey Liming, Harianantenaina L. Rakotondraibe 

2025 BENFRA Symposium, Portland, Oregon, June 16, 2025

On Monday June 16, a symposium was held at Oregon Health & Science University (OHSU) to celebrate the achievements of the BENFRA Botanical Dietary Supplements Center. The BENFRA Center is funded by a National Institutes of Health grant (NCCIH AT010829), and studies “Botanicals Enhancing Neurological and Functional Resilience in Aging.   Oregon’s Wild Harvest (OWH) is one of four collaborating organizations that form the Center. The conference was well attended with 20 in person attendees and 59 online attendees.  

The symposium began with an overview by Center Director Dr Amala Soumyanath (OHSU), who described the goals and general achievements of the Center over the last 5 years, including 20 peer reviewed publications available on the website.  Talks by Dr Nora Gray (OHSU) and others described the use of preclinical models to demonstrate cognitive enhancing and anti-anxiety effects of Centella asiatica (gotu kola), and to study the active compounds and mechanisms that underly these effects.  Natasha Cerruti (OWH) has been growing several varieties of gotu kola, a tropical plant, in a greenhouse at OWH’s Redmond site.   Dr Luke Marney of Dr Claudia Maier’s lab at Oregon State University (OSU) described variation in chemical profile, including content of active compounds based on variety and time of harvest.  The goal of this work is to identify a high-quality variety of gotu kola that can be cultivated at OWH for use in future clinical trials.

The second half of the conference focused on Withania somnifera or ashwagandha.  Testing extracts of roots and leaves from ashwagandha plants grown at OWH, Dr Doris Kretzschmar (OHSU) described how different types of ashwagandha extracts affect sleep, cognitive function or resilience to stress in a Drosophila model.  Dr Claudia Maier (OSU) described analytical studies exploring how the chemical differences between the extracts account for these different biological effects. Overall, these studies confirmed biological activities of OWH grown ashwagandha and highlighted the need to continue to identify active compounds, in addition to the well-known withanolides, to be measured as markers for standardization of ashwagandha extracts.

In addition to the speakers mentioned earlier, presentations were given by three early career scientists who received postdoctoral training at the BENFRA Center – Drs Steven Chamberlin, Dr Alex Speers and Dr Benjamin Zimmerman. External collaborators (Dr Lukasz Ciesla, University of Alabama, Dr Angela Calderon, Auburn University and Dr Wendy Strangman of the University of North Carolina Wilmington gave presentations on the effects of gotu kola on inflammaging, effects of ashwagandha on drug metabolizing enzymes, and changes to ashwagandha components induced by digestive fluids.

American Society for Mass Spectrometry Meeting, Baltimore, Maryland, June 1-5, 2025

LC-QTOF and LC-TIMS-qQTOF MS Analysis of Fecal Inoculum Biotransformation Products and LC-MRM-MS Analysis of Human Withanolide Pharmacokinetics of an Ashwagandha Supplement 

Jessica L. Etter, Luke Marney, Jaewoo Choi, Liping Yang, Eli Smart, Alex Speers, Axel Lozano-Ortiz, Ella Limoico, Amala Soumyanath, Jan F. Stevens, Claudia S. Maier

OHSU Neurology Research Day, Portland, OR, May 8, 2025

Triterpenes and caffeoylquinic acids from Centella asiatica contribute to its beneficial effects on age-related changes in learning, memory, and anxiety

Lucas Kuhnau, Wyatt Hack, Jesus Martínez, Arshia Sohal, Amala Soumyanath, Nora Gray

Identification and Quantitation of Bioactive Alkaloids in Withania somnifera

Luke Marney, Rudranil Dutta, Jaewoo Choi, Liping Yang, Amala Soumyanath, Jan F. Stevens, Claudia S. Maier

Alzheimer’s & Parkinson’s Disease Conference, Vienna, Austria, April 1-5, 2025

Withania somnifera (ashwagandha) improves spatial memory, anxiety and depressive-like behavior in the 5xFAD mouse model of Alzheimer’s disease

Noah Gladen-Kolarsky, Olivia Monestime, Melissa Bollen, Jae-woo Choi, Liping Yang, Armando Alcazar-Magaňa, Claudia S. Maier4, Amala Soumyanath, Nora E. Gray

Society for Psychophysiological Research Annual Meeting, Prague, Czech Republic, October 23-26, 2024

Investigating the effects of Centella asiatica water extract on cerebrovascular function in mice.

Ben Zimmerman, Amala Soumyanath, Nora Gray, Martin Pike, Anusha Mishra

NIH Workshop: Advancing the Biomedical Science of Resilience, Rockville, MD, September 24-25, 2024

Botanicals Enhancing Resilience in Aging: Strategies Developed for Investigating Centella asiatica.

Nora Gray

Neuroscience Graduate Program Retreat, Government Camp, OR, September 16-17, 2024

Investigating the effects of Centella asiatica water extract on cerebrovascular function in mice.

Ben Zimmerman, Amala Soumyanath, Nora Gray, Martin Pike, Anusha Mishra

26th North American ISSX and 39th JSSX Meeting, Honolulu, Hawaii, September 15-18, 2024

Developing natural products as potential therapeutic agents.

Amala Soumyanath

Intelligent Systems for Molecular Biology, Montreal, Canada, July 12-16, 2024

Correlation network analyses in 2 omics domains reveals extensive Centella asiatica compound interactions in mouse cortical neurons.

Steve Chamberlin, Jonathan Zweig, Cody Neff, Dan Bottomly, Luke Marney, Jaewoo Choi, Claudia Maier, Amala Soumyanath, Shannon McWeeney, Nora Gray

2024 CARBON Awardee Meeting, Chicago, IL, June 28, 2024

Investigating the effects of Centella asiatica water extract on cerebrovascular function in mice.

Ben Zimmerman, Amala Soumyanath, Nora Gray, Martin Pike, Anusha Mishra

International Congress on Natural Products Research, Krakow, Poland, July 13–17, 2024

Ashwagandha improves cognition and attenuates depressive-like behavior in an Alzheimer’s disease mouse model.

Noah Gladen Kolarsky, Wyatt Hack, Olivia Monestime, Melissa Bollen, Amala Soumyanath, Nora Gray

72nd Annual ASMS Mass Spectrometry and Allied Topics, Anaheim, June 2–6, 2024

Discovering bioactive compounds in Centella asiatica by chromatographic fractionation, flow-injection ion-mobility mass spectrometry, ARE/NRF2 response, and ensemble elastic net regression.

Luke Marney, Vera Alenicheva, Bailey Keefe, Jaewoo Choi, Liping Yang, Nora Gray, Amala Soumyanath, Kevin Brown, Jan F. Stevens, Claudia S. Maier

 

Knowledge-based data strategies bridge the gap for automated data analysis of phytochemical diversity in Withania somnifera.

Luke Marney, Rudranil Dutta, Jaewoo Choi, Liping Yang, Amala Soumyanath, Jan F. Stevens, Claudia S. Maier

 

OHSU Research Week, Portland, OR, May 6–10, 2024

Evaluating the effects of Centella asiatica water extract on cerebrovascular function in mice.

Zimmerman, B., Soumyanath, A., Gray, N., Pike, M., Mishra, A.

CAW attenuates microglial activation in the hippocampus and reduces B-amyloid plaque burden in the cortex of female 5XFAD mice.

Olivia Monestime, Alex Speers, Nareg Kedjejian, Mikah Brandes, Dos Matthews, Maya Caruso, and Amala Soumyanath, Nora Gray.

Ashwagandha improves cognition and attenuates depressive-like behavior in 5xFAD mice.

Noah Gladen-Kolarsky, Wyatt Hack, Nora Gray, Amala Soumyanath, and Olivia Monestime.

American Society for Neurochemistry 2024 Annual Meeting, Portland, OR, April 14–18, 2024 

Effects of Centella asiatica water extract on cerebrovascular function in mice. 

Zimmerman, B., Soumyanath, A., Gray, N., Pike, M., Mishra, A.

Metabolomic Profiling of Greenhouse-Grown Cultivars of Centella asiatica, a Herb Touted for Improving Memory and Preventing Cognitive Decline.

Md Nure Alam, Luke Marney, Liping Yang, Jaewoo Choi, Natasha Cerruti , Natascha Techen, Samuel Bassett, James Smith, Kevin Brown,  Kadine Cabey, Ramya Viswanathan, Sumanaa Rajagopal, Amala Soumyanath, Jan F. Stevens, and Claudia S. Maier.

Neuroactive Effects of Ashwagandha: From Ayurvedic Medicine to Cellular Bioactivity and Mass Spectrometry.

Emily Georges, Luke Marney, Jaewoo Choi, Liping Yan, Md Alam Nure, Rudranil Dutta, Armando Alcazar Magana, Amala Soumyanath, Bailey Keefe, Jan F. Stevens, Claudia S. Maier.

2024 International Congress on Integrative Medicine & Health, Cleveland, OH, April 9–14, 2024

Investigating the effects of Centella asiatica water extract on cerebrovascular function in mice.

Zimmerman, B., Soumyanath, A., Gray, N., Pike, M., Mishra, A.

Society for Neuroscience Oregon/SW Washington Chapter Meeting, Troutdale, OR, March 8–9, 2024

Evaluating the effects of Centella asiatica water extract on cerebrovascular function in mice.

Zimmerman, B., Soumyanath, A., Gray, N., Pike, M., Mishra, A.

Centella asiatica reduces anxiety in aged female mice, accompanied by elevated levels of GABA, and reduced levels of corticosterone in blood samples. 

Olivia Monestime, Wyatt Hack, Jon Zweig, Mikah Brandes, Amala Soumyanath, Nora Gray.

A water extract of the plant Centella asiatica increases cortical BDNF levels in aged mice. 

Brooke Rogers, Sam Varada, Wyatt Hack, Jon Zweig, Mikah Brandes, Amala Soumyanath, Nora Gray.

Linus Pauling Institute Conference on Diet and Optimum Health, Septmeber 19 and 20, 2023

Centella asiatica administered in the drinking water attenuates age-related changes in cognition, anxiety and sleep-deprived cognition more robustly than when administered in the diet.

Hack W, Brandes MS, Zweig JA,  Koike S, Nguyen T, Raber J, Quinn JF, Soumyanath A, Gray NE.

Chemical profiling of Centella asiatica greenhouse-grown cultivars by high resolution mass spectrometry

Md Nure Alam, Luke Marney, Liping Yang, Jaewoo Choi, Natasha Cerruti, Natascha Techen, Samuel Bassett, James Smith, Kevin Brown, Kadine Cabey, Ramya Viswanathan, Sumanaa Rajagopal, Amala Soumyanath, Jan F. Stevens, and Claudia S. Maier.

 

Computational Approaches to Outline Compositional Difference of Ashwagandha Root and Leaf Extracts

Rudranil Dutta, Luke Marney, Md Alam Nure, Jaewoo Choi, Vera Alenicheva, Emily Georges, Armando Alcazar Magana, Liping Yang, Mikah Brandes, Doris Kretzschmar, Amala Soumyanath, Jan F. Stevens, Claudia S. Maier.

American Society of Pharmacognosy Annual Meeting, Bethesda MD, July 22–26, 2023

Chemical profiling of greenhouse grown Centella asiatica cultivars by high resolution 

mass spectrometry

Md Nure Alam, Luke Marney, Liping Yang, Jaewoo Choi, Natasha Cerruti, Samuel Bassett, Kadine Cabey, Ramya Viswanathan, Sumanaa Rajagopal, Amala Soumyanath, Jan F. Stevens, and Claudia S. Maier. 

Centella asiatica administered in the drinking water attenuates age-related changes in cognition, anxiety and sleep-deprived cognition more robustly than when administered in the diet.

Wyatt Hack, Mikah Brandes, Jon Zweig, Seiji Koike, Thuan Nguyen, Jacob Raber, Joseph F. Quinn, Amala Soumyanath, Nora E. Gray.

Evaluation of botanical extracts for cytochrome P450 mediated drug interactions.

Zarna Raichura, Kabre Heck, Jaewoo Choi, Mikah Brandes, Cody Neff, Claudia Maier, Amala Soumyanath, Robert Arnold, and Angela I Calderón.

LC-MS and Proton NMR Spin Network Fingerprint Databases of Secondary Metabolites for Identification and Standardization of the Botanical Supplement Centella asiatica. 

Harinantenaina L. Rakotondraibe, Luke C. Marney, Jaewoo Choi, Liping Yang, Nora Gray, Jan F. Stevens, Claudia S. Maier, Amala Soumyanath.

Phytochemical Society of North America Meeting, East Lansing MI, July 16–20, 2023

Phytochemical characterization of Ashwagandha, a best-selling botanical supplement for stress relief and improvement of sleep

Luke Marney, Jaewoo Choi,  Armando Alcazar Magana, Liping Yang, Md Alam Nure, Mikah Brandes, Doris Kretzschmar, Amala Soumyanath,  Jan F. Stevens, Claudia S. Maier.

American Society of Mass Spectrometry, Houston TX, June 4–8, 2023

Dimensionality reduction methods and GNPS for plant metabolomics of Centella asiatica cultivars

Luke Marney, Md Alam Nure, Liping Yang, Jaewoo Choi, Natasha Cerruti, Armando Alcazar Magana, Corey De la Cruz, Gerrad Jones, Kadine Cabey, Ramya Viswanathan, Sumanaa Rajagopal, James Smith, Amala Soumyanath, Jan F. Stevens, Claudia S. Maier

Delineating the natural product composition of Ashwagandha extracts by combining electrophile trapping with untargeted chemical fingerprinting and GNPS networking 

Md Nure Alam, Armando Alcazar Magana, Jaewoo Choi, Luke Marney, Paul Cheong, Mikah Brandes, Cody Neff, Amala Soumyanath, Jan F. Stevens, and Claudia S. Maier.

OHSU Research Week and OHSU Neurology Research Day, May 2023

Sex specific effects of Centella asiatica on age-related sleep deficits in an aged mouse model

Carolyn E. Tinsley, Katelyn Gutowsky, Matthias Ruffins, Noah E.P. Milman, Claire Wong, Christina Reynolds, Amala Soumyanath, Nora E. Gray, Miranda M. Lim.

An ex vivo mouse brain slice model to study acute cerebral vasoactivity of Centella asiatica water extract.

Benjamin Zimmerman, Amala Soumyanath, Anusha Mishra.

NIH CARBON Program Annual Meeting, Bethesda, MD, September 29–30, 2022

Untargeted Transcriptomic Analysis Reveals a High Degree of Pathway Activation in Mouse Primary Cortical Neurons by Centella asiatica extract and compounds. 

Steve Chamberlin, Jonathan Zweig, Cody Neff, Dan Bottomly, Amala Soumyanath, Shannon McWeeney, Claudia Maier, Nora Gray.

American Society of Pharmacognosy Annual Meeting, Charleston SC, July 23–28, 2022

Withania somnifera (WS) extracts exhibit extract-dependent neurotropic activities

Kadine Cabey, Christine McClure, Jonathan Zweig, Nareg Kedjejian,  Mikah S. Brandes, Cody Neff, Alexander Law, Luke Marney, Armando Alcazar-Magana, Jaewoo Choi, Liping Yang, Jan F. Stevens, Claudia S. Maier, Nora Gray, Doris Kretzschmar, and Amala Soumyanath.

 

Centella asiatica extract provides resilience against age related behavior changes in Drosophila melanogaster

Karon Rowe, Kadine Cabey, Armando Alcazar-Magana, Jaewoo Choi, Liping Yang, Jan F. Stevens, Claudia S. Maier, Doris Kretzschmar and Amala Soumyanath.

 

Untargeted Transcriptomic Analysis of the Effects of Centella asiatica in Cortical Neurons

Steve Chamberlin, Jonathan Zweig, Dan Bottomly, Claudia Maier, Amala Soumyanath, Shannon McWeeney, Nora Gray.

Alzheimer’s Association International Conference, Amsterdam, Netherlands and Online, July 16–20, 2022

Investigating the Effects of Centella asiatica on Neuroinflammation in Beta-Amyloid Overexpressing Mice

Alex B. Speers, Mikah S. Brandes, Nareg Kedjejian, Donald G. Matthews, Maya Caruso, Kirsten M. Wright, Christopher J. Harris, Joseph F. Quinn, Amala Soumyanath, Nora E. Gray.

Intelligent Systems for Molecular Biology (ISMB), Madison, WI and online, July, 10–14, 2022

Untargeted Transcriptomic Analysis of the Effects of Centella asiatica in Cortical Neurons

Steve Chamberlin, Jonathan Zweig, Dan Bottomly, Claudia Maier, Amala Soumyanath, Shannon McWeeney, Nora Gray.

American Society of Mass Spectrometry, Minneapolis, MN, June 5–9, 2022

Contrasting the quantifiability of Centella asiatica marker compounds in extracts and formulations using LC-HRMS/MS and LC-MRM-MS

Liping Yang, Luke Marney, Armando Alcazar Magana, Jaewoo Choi, Md Alam Nure, Mikah Brandes, Christine McClure, Nora Gray, Doris Kretzschmar, Amala Soumyanath, Jan F. Stevens, Claudia S. Maier

 

Establishing a characterization and quantitation strategy for Withania somnifera extracts using LC-HRMS/MS and LC-MRM-MS

Jaewoo Choi, Luke C. Marney, Armando Alcazar Magana, Liping Yang, Md Alam Nure, Mikah Brandes, Christine McClure, Doris Kretzschmar, Amala Soumyanath, Jan F. Stevens, Claudia S. Maier.

American Society of Pharmacognosy- Vanguards of Natural Product Research 2021, July 30, 2021 (virtual poster session)

Centella asiatica and Withania somnifera improve resilience in older Drosophila melanogaster flies

Christine McClure, Mikah Brandes, Doris Kretzschmar, Parnian Lak, Maya Caruso, Armando Alcazar Magana, Kadine Cabey, Alex Speers, Kirsten Wright, Claudia Maier, Jan F. Stevens, Amala Soumyanath.

Chemometric Analysis for the Classification and Characterization of Withania somnifera Extracts Using LC-HRMS/MS

Armando Alcazar Magana, Md Nure Alam, Mikah Brandes, Christine McClure, Amala Soumyanath, Jan F. Stevens, and Claudia S. Maier.

Metabolomic investigation into the cognitive-enhancing effects of Centella asiatica in a 5xFAD mouse model of β-amyloid accumulation

Alex B. Speers, Manuel García-Jaramillo, Alicia Feryn, Donald G. Matthews, Talia Lichtenberg, Joseph F. Quinn, Jan F. Stevens, Claudia S. Maier, Amala Soumyanath, Nora E. Gray.

60th Annual Meeting of the Phytochemical Society of North America, Canada virtually from July 25–30, 2021

Establishing a characterization strategy for Withania somnifera extracts using LC-HRMS/MS in combination with GNPS networking analysis. 

Armando Alcazar Magana, Mikah Brandes, Christine Mcclure,  Amala Soumyanath, Jan F. Stevens, And Claudia S. Maier.

Best poster award

International Conference on Traditional Medicine and Phytochemistry, Jul 12–14, 2021, (virtual, organizers in Melbourne, AU)

Centella asiatica and Withania somnifera improve resilience in older Drosophila melanogaster flies

Christine McClure, Mikah Brandes, Doris Kretzschmar, Lak P, Maya Caruso, Armando Alcazar Magana, Kadine Cabey, Alex Speers, Kirsten Wright, Claudia Maier, Jan F. Stevens, Amala Soumyanath.

OHSU Neurology Research Day, May 1, 2021 (virtual meeting)

Centella asiatica and Withania somnifera improve resilience in older Drosophila melanogaster flies

Christine McClure, Mikah Brandes, Doris Kretzschmar, Parnian Lak, Maya Caruso, Armando Alcazar Magana, Kadine Cabey, Alex Speers, Kirsten Wright, Claudia Maier, Jan F. Stevens, Amala Soumyanath.

Metabolomic investigation into the cognitive-enhancing effects of Centella asiatica in a 5xFAD mouse model of β-amyloid accumulation  

Alex B. Speers, Manuel García-Jaramillo, Alicia Feryn, Donald G. Matthews, Talia Lichtenberg, Joseph F. Quinn, Jan F. Stevens, Claudia S. Maier, Amala Soumyanath, Nora E. Gray.

Society for Neuroscience, Oregon Chapter. April 15, 2021 (virtual meeting)

Metabolomic investigation into the cognitive-enhancing effects of Centella asiatica in a 5xFAD mouse model of β-amyloid accumulation 

Alex B. Speers, Manuel García-Jaramillo, Alicia Feryn, Donald G. Matthews, Talia Lichtenberg, Joseph F. Quinn, Jan F. Stevens, Claudia S. Maier, Amala Soumyanath, Nora E. Gray

Best poster award

OHSU Research Week and OHSU Neurology Research Day, Portland OR, May 2–5, 2022

Effects of Untargeted Transcriptomic Analysis of the Effects of Centella asiatica in Cortical Neurons.

Steve Chamberlin, Jonathan Zweig, Cody Neff, Dan Bottomly, Amala Soumyanath, Shannon McWeeney, Claudia Maier, Nora Gray.