Phytotherapy for athletes' performance optimisation ; Place de la phytothérapie dans l'optimisation de l'effort du sportif

Thèse proposée pour un prix de thèse. ; Pharmacists’ guidance is often sought by athletes that want to improve their performance. Aware of the potential dangers that come with the usage of certain products, athletes are calling more and more upon pharmacists’ recommendations when it comes to micro nutrition and phytotherapy/aromatherapy. At this time, no plants or plant-based preparations are considered as banned substances in sports. However, having recourse to food supplements to enhance one’s performance is considered as a doping practice and does not only concern high-level athletes. Even when no competitive stakes are involved, athletes always push themselves to overcome their limits. In order to accomplish one’s goals, the athlete will take food supplements to delay the fatigue and enhance his performance. Nevertheless, the intake of said supplements is not deprived from all health related risks and does not guaranty a negative result to an anti-doping test if the product is impure. In this context, the importance of the pharmacist’s role becomes apparent when it comes to doping prevention. This paper focuses on the plants found in food supplements’ formulas that can be recommended in these conditions. After reviewing pharmaceutical forms used in phytotherapy and the ways of optimizing sport performance, this study approaches different stimulant plant species with anti-asthenic virtues. Caffeine based plants in particular (tea, mate, kola, guarana) as well as two vitamin C rich plants (acerola and goji) and lastly, adaptogen plants known for their stress resistance virtues (rhodiola, ginseng, eleutherococcus, schisandra) were considered in this thesis. ; Le conseil du pharmacien d’officine est régulièrement sollicité par des sportifs qui cherchent à optimiser leurs performances. Conscients des dangers dans l'utilisation de certains produits, ils font de plus en plus appel aux conseils en micronutrition et en phytothérapie/aromathérapie. Aujourd’hui, aucune plante ou préparation à base de plantes n’est ...