Bacopa monnieri (common name: Brahmi), is an herb containing a plethora of phytochemicals of extreme medicinal importance. It belongs to the family Scrophulariaceae and occurs in tropical nations. Its use has been well established in both traditional and ayurvedic medicine for its nootropic and neuroprotective attributes. Its age-old use has been as a memory booster and restoring cardiac and nervous system related disorders. In the modern therapeutics, clinical investigations have been carried out to evaluate its role managing Alzheimer’s disease, cancer, diabetes, also hepatotoxicity. The functional active compounds isolated from Brahmi include bacosides, bacopasides, saponins, alkaloids, flavonoids and glycosides. © The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2023.