Percentage of elementary magnesium in the 800mg magnesium glycinate capsules

Yes, since magnesium has an RDA (recommended daily allowance) from the FDA, you have to list amounts of elemental magnesium. It's the same for any metal or vitamin with an RDA. So for example if you have calcium ascorbate, you have to list the amount of actual vitamin C in each dose. That's because vitamin C has an RDA, so you have different rules on how you list how much there is. The same goes for our Microzinc. It's 8mg elemental zinc from 20mg sucrosomial zinc. The sucrose ester that surrounds the zinc has weight, but the elemental zinc is what you are looking for.

Magnesium glycinate, or more specifically magnesium bisglycinate chelate, is a single atom of magnesium chelated to two glycine molecules by a coordinate bond. This means for every atom of magnesium (24.305 g/mol) you have two molecules of glycine (75.067 g/mol). The total molar mass of magnesium glycinate is 172.423 g/mol. You lose a couple hydrogens because of the binding, which is why it is a couple g/mol lower than just adding them all up. So the elemental magnesium in each mg of perfectly chelated magnesium glycinate is 14.09% (24.305 divided by 172.423). However, chelation is not a perfect process and the analytical methods used to verify the content are not perfect, either. There is measurement uncertainty and synthesis yields that come into play. So we set our specification for what we would accept as between 12.5% and 15%. Now, to further complicate things, the FDA says that you have to be at or above label claims on dietary supplements. This is even though they accept USP guidelines for capsule weight variance. So to be in compliance with that rule, we actually have to put even more padding on our Supplement Facts claims. So our Supplement Facts is actually the lowest amount of elemental magnesium you could ever get in any capsule, regardless of capsule variance. The actual amount in most capsules is a bit higher than that, but we do all the calculations to ensure we will be in compliance if any of the capsules are tested in the lab.

Now as another example, let's take our Magtein magnesium L-threonate. In that case you have a single magnesium atom (24.305 g/mol) chelated to two molecules of threonic acid (136.1 g/mol). So magnesium L-threonate has a molar mass of 294.495 g/mol. Again, you lose a couple hydrogens by bonding them together. So the amount of elemental magnesium in a perfectly chelated amount of magnesium L-threonate is 8.25% (24.305 divided by 294.495). We set our spec to 7.2-8.3%. Now remember, this is on a dry basis as an anhydrous form. If you have a hydrate or dihydrate form, it is different. If you have some water content in there, it is different. We account for all these things. I'm not going to get into the complexities of the crystal structure and how differing amounts of water can be bound in the crystals. Unless we specify it, we sell things in anhydrous form.

Now let's take our Micromag. That's magnesium oxide encased by a sucrester, or sucrose ester. This essentially takes a sucrose-based fatty acid and surrounds each particle of magnesium with it. This results in an elemental magnesium content of 32-38% on a dry basis. The range is larger there, as encasing in a sucrose ester is not as consistent as chelating to an amino acid or sugar acid like in the other forms. Sometimes the sucrester will weigh a little more/less for each particle. The higher amount of elemental magnesium per mg allows you to get much higher RDA amounts in a single capsule. This is why our Micromag is one capsule dose, but our magnesium glycinate is two, and our Magtein is three.

I hope that makes sense. We recently got a bad review on our Microzinc on Amazon because the person did not understand how labeling of elemental metals works when you are following the guidelines from the FDA. We follow all the rules, whereas many of our competitors do not. This makes it seem like we are under-dosing things, when in fact we have probably thought more about the science behind these things than our competitors ever have.