Evidence Level
Emerging
Schisandra was one of the three original adaptogens studied extensively by Soviet pharmacologists. Panossian and Wikman (2008) published a comprehensive review of schisandra pharmacology, documenting its hepatoprotective, antioxidant, and adaptogenic mechanisms. The best-designed human study is Aslanyan et al. (2010), which used ADAPT-232 (a combination of schisandra, rhodiola, and eleuthero) and showed cognitive benefits under stress — though this makes isolating schisandra's individual effects difficult. The hepatoprotective evidence, primarily from schisandrin B research, is the most mechanistically well-understood benefit.