What it is
Regulatory status: dietary supplement ingredient; not an FDA-approved sleep or anxiety treatment
Mechanism evidence: animal
At a glance
What it is, why people use it, the evidence, and what to know before trying it.
Why people use it
- Better subjective sleep / shorter sleep latency / fewer awakenings (the 50 mg, 30 min pre-bed claim).
- Less anxiety / calmer evenings.
- Higher tissue NAD+ via CD38 inhibition; implied sirtuin / “longevity” effects.
- Anti-cancer / chemoprevention.
- Adequate oral bioavailability at 50 mg to reach the above targets.
- Chamomile extract for GAD or sleep.
- Chamomile tea for postnatal sleep.
- Dietary apigenin (food-frequency) associated with sleep quality.
- Magnesium or L-theanine, alone or stacked.
Evidence at a glance
Isolated apigenin at the claimed 50 mg bedtime dose is a mechanism-rich, outcome-poor supplement. The human RCT count for isolated apigenin on sleep, anxiety, NAD+, or cancer is **zero**. The one time ~50 mg of the actual capsule went into people (Borges 2022, n=4), **nothing measurable appeared in plasma** and urinary metabolites were 0.5% of intake. That single PK result undercuts both the GABA-A sleep claim and the CD38/NAD claim at the dose people actually swallow. What *is* supported, and must be kept in a different box: **chamomile extract** has a modest, replicated anxiolytic signal in small GAD RCTs (Amsterdam 2009: HAM-A −3.17 vs placebo; Mao 2016: symptoms held but relapse NS) and a **null** dedicated insomnia RCT (Zick 2011) plus weaker, less-blinded elderly/postmenopausal extract trials. Those extracts delivered **~3–23 mg of apigenin plus the rest of the flower**. Chamomile tea is another step further away (~1–4 mg glycosides plus terpenoids). None of that is a 50 mg isolated-aglycone trial. Cancer evidence is in vitro and animal; the only human neoplasia cohort used 20 mg apigenin **plus EGCG**, was not randomised, and the follow-on RCT was suspended.