← The FormularyDrive & vitalityOat straw
Also known as Green oat extract / Avena sativaA nerve tonic that turned up in cognition trials.
Oat straw is the quiet surprise of this blend. It arrived as a traditional nervine — the herbalist's remedy for nervous exhaustion — and has since produced a run of proper randomised, double-blind trials showing small but repeatable improvements in working memory, multitasking and the physiological stress response. Small is the operative word, and the trials used 430–1,600 mg where PRIME carries a share of a 745 mg thirteen-botanical blend. So: a real ingredient with real trials, present at a supporting amount.
Extract of the green, unripe oat plant — the stems and leaves rather than the grain, harvested while still milky.
Green oat extract appears to inhibit two enzymes — phosphodiesterase and monoamine oxidase-B — which together affect blood flow and dopamine availability in the brain. Trials have picked up measurable changes in EEG activity, which is unusual for a botanical of this kind and makes the small behavioural findings more credible.
Studied for attention and working memory, and used traditionally as a nervine: a tonic for a frayed nervous system.
Anyone taking the blend. Also the ingredient here most worth investigating on its own terms, at a proper dose, if the cognitive angle interests you.
Daily inside PRIME's blend, with food. The trials ran both acute single doses and four-week courses, and found effects in both.
Subtle at best, and measured in laboratory tasks rather than felt in a day.
Grade B. A randomised double-blind placebo-controlled trial found improved working memory and multitasking at 430 mg and 1,290 mg, with reduced electrodermal stress response at the higher dose; a separate trial found fewer errors on the Stroop task at 1,600 mg. A systematic review of Avena sativa and cognition found positive effects on attention, memory and executive function in four studies.
Read the labelContains oats — avoid with coeliac disease unless the source is certified gluten-free. Not a treatment for any cognitive condition.
Evidence grades describe how well an ingredient is studied — A well-supported, C emerging — not a promise of results. Educational, not medical advice. Doses are typical ranges; follow the label on the product.