CortiSync Ingredients: Every Dose vs. the Research

The label amount comes from the label table above. The studied dose is what the human trials actually gave people, and the next column says whether they tested the same form.

Only the Sensoril sits inside the dose range its own trials tested. Five of the other six are below their studied doses, several by a wide margin. The lychee row is a different case: the trial tested a different product altogether.

Both Sensoril stress trials tested 125, 250 and 500 mg/day. Per the label, the amount here is 300 mg: inside that range, but not a dose either trial tested exactly. Both trials are linked to the company that makes Sensoril, and the 2008 one appeared in a small trade journal that PubMed doesn’t index.

Much of the ashwagandha cortisol research people quote used other extracts, mainly KSM-66 and Shoden, and those results don’t transfer automatically (Sensoril vs KSM-66 covers the difference). The trial closest to this site’s readers, in overweight men aged 40–70, used Shoden. It was reportedly funded by Shoden’s maker and found no difference in salivary cortisol vs placebo.

This is a small trial: 18 young volunteers, single doses, one lab stressor. The calming effect showed up at 600 mg of a standardized extract. Per the label, CortiSync has 150 mg of lemon balm powder, which is below both doses tested, and a powder isn’t the same thing as a standardized extract.

The only human cortisol data for lychee in the sources checked are for Oligonol, a different proprietary lychee and green tea product, in 19 healthy, unstressed young men. The label lists lichi fruit extract without naming the extract type, so this trial doesn’t tell you much about it. Human evidence for lychee fruit extract on stress, mood or sleep is absent from the sources checked.

Both trials used 200 mg. Per the label, CortiSync has 100 mg, below the dose in either trial and below the 200–400 mg/day range a 2020 systematic review pointed to. A 2026 meta-analysis of 31 trials found the short-term stress effect of a single dose in healthy adults modest, and largely driven by studies at high risk of bias.

The stronger of the two receipts is the Holixer trial: placebo-controlled, 8 weeks, with hair cortisol measured, though company-funded. It used a proprietary extract at 250 mg/day. Per the label, CortiSync has 100 mg of holy basil leaf extract, below both studied doses, and the label doesn’t name either branded extract. A 2017 review of 24 human studies of tulsi, covering a mix of outcomes rather than stress alone, reported uniformly favorable results. Results that uniform can reflect small studies and publication bias, and the authors said dose and dose form still need work.

Both human stress trials in the sources checked tested Relora, a blend of magnolia and phellodendron bark, at 500 and 750 mg/day. Per the label, CortiSync has 100 mg of magnolia bark extract, with no phellodendron listed. These results can’t be pinned on magnolia alone, or on that amount, and both trials had company links.

The trials used 576 mg/day of SHR-5 and 400 mg/day of WS 1375. Per the label, CortiSync has 50 mg of rhodiola root extract, far below both, and the label doesn’t name either proprietary extract. Two systematic reviews called the rhodiola evidence limited (2011) and inconclusive (2012), with little replication by other research teams.