Background

　　Fatigue is a common symptom in modern society^ The interest of near-traditional therapy in fatigue is rising again. Chicken essence rich in oatine and carnosine is widely used in Asian countries. As a traditional treatment, it has a variety of purposes, including reducing physical and mental fatigue. However, the evidence of its specificity for mental fatigue is not clear. We used our established fatigue induction task and evaluation method to study the effect of chicken essence on human mental fatigue.

Material/method

　　In this placebo-controlled crossover study, 20 healthy male volunteers were randomly given daily oral medicine of chicken essence or placebo beverage provided by Cerebos Pacific Ltd. through Suntory Holdings Co., Ltd. for 4 weeks. Participants were tested twice as a mental task to induce fatigue, and then rested. Before and after each meeting, they completed a cognitive task experiment focusing on selective attention to assess the degree of psychological fatigue.

Result

　　After 1 and 4 weeks of chicken semen intake, the reaction time of cognitive task test after rest was significantly shorter than that at baseline, and no significant change was observed in placebo intake. The reaction time before and after inducing fatigue did not change due to the nature of chicken or placebo intake.

Conclusion

　　We show that daily consumption of chicken essence can effectively recover from mental fatigue and is a promising candidate for anti-fatigue food.