Reddit AMA | In-House Lab Edition

Comment · Wed, October 20, 2021 · 1 pts

Yes, ashwagandha is one of our most comprehensively tested natural products, due to our work with the team behind Shoden. We worked together to really advance ashwagandha testing methods. I talked about it in this thread

Comment · Wed, October 20, 2021 · 1 pts

Not everyone makes all the machines or makes the same quality machines. Waters is absolutely #1 for liquid chromatography. They are the Ferrari of UPLC, since they developed the technology. They also focused on pharma mo

Comment · Wed, October 20, 2021 · 1 pts

We are always hiring for positions all over the company. This includes everything from warehouse employees and production techs to scientists and engineers.

Comment · Wed, October 20, 2021 · 1 pts

Agreed. Money is king in most industries. It's tough to fight against the status quo. It can be discouraging at times, because I know how much we put into everything being done right. However, then we see companies we kn

Comment · Wed, October 20, 2021 · 1 pts

Our bank won't allow it. We are only allowed to sell in tablets right now. It's a risk thing, I guess. Maybe we can talk them into it after we have enough time selling the tablets.

Comment · Wed, October 20, 2021 · 1 pts

Yes, but at always seems to be the case, it is taking longer than one would have hoped. Right now the supply chain is so fucked, it's hard enough just keep things in stock and keeping prices reasonable. We just had anoth

Comment · Thu, October 21, 2021 · 1 pts

I can speak for both of us when I say that we both like Dynamine/methylliberine. It impressed us so much that we made DynaMAX because of it. It's very interesting how different it is than caffeine. The only limitation is

Comment · Thu, October 21, 2021 · 1 pts

There are no validated testing methods at the moment. We've gone over this a ton with all the labs around the world, including SGS US and SGS China. The numbers people are putting are not valid in our eyes. We have seen

Comment · Thu, October 21, 2021 · 1 pts

If you send a resume to [email protected], I'll make sure it gets assigned to my lab director. I am not sure we are looking for someone on UPLC right this second, but we are expanding and adding more R&D every

Comment · Thu, October 21, 2021 · 1 pts

I have not in a while. I need to do another telomere test. I'll get a baseline, then decide on what I am going to do after that. I had hoped I would be less stressed as time went on, but the past 2 years have been some o

Comment · Thu, October 21, 2021 · 1 pts

Yes, it has been in the works for a while.

Comment · Thu, October 21, 2021 · 1 pts

We have farms that we work with that grow all our mushrooms. Not one farm is good at all mushrooms, so we have different farms for the various ones. The farm that grows the best cordyceps is not the one that makes the be

Comment · Thu, October 21, 2021 · 1 pts

> 2nd question if you have time: With all the recent supply chain woes and just general need for high QX, will it ever be possible for ND to do it's own in house synthesis for some products? We actually already are. It'

Comment · Thu, October 21, 2021 · 1 pts

The Natrium one is likely 5 weeks off or so. Those labels are printed for us by a 3rd party company, and they have a 4 week lead time at the moment.

Comment · Thu, October 21, 2021 · 1 pts

> 3) Has there ever been anger between you and other labs when your findings don't match, maybe if another lab didn't use enough methods to discover issues with a batch or something like that? There is a lot I want to s

Comment · Thu, October 21, 2021 · 1 pts

>on topic: what is your dream lab spec / equipment - say you truly had money no object? And why those machines / processes and what would you use them for? I would probably agree with my lab director. I guess that make

Comment · Thu, October 21, 2021 · 1 pts

Yes on both. We have been unable to make astaxanthin for a reasonable price yet. I'd like to bring it out, but costs are making that not feasible. Fadogia agrestis is not one I am sold on yet. I think there are toxicit

Comment · Thu, October 21, 2021 · 1 pts

We work with Alkemist all the time, and we asked them for years to test triterpenes in reishi, but they said they couldn't yet. However, it appears as though they just started offering it to Oriveda. I looked at the chro

Comment · Thu, October 21, 2021 · 1 pts

I do miss the fun carefree days of Ceretropic. There was a naive optimism back then. It was before the reality of the world smacked me in the face and forced me to temper my expectations a bit. Don't get me wrong, we do

Comment · Fri, October 22, 2021 · 1 pts

ICP-MS, which is inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry. The detection limits of the machine and methods we use are: Arsenic: 0.2000 ppm Cadmium: 0.0800 ppm Mercury: 0.0200 ppm Lead: 0.0800 ppm

Comment · Fri, October 22, 2021 · 1 pts

Yes, due to customs issues. They claimed FDA holds, but we never received official documents from the FDA. We emailed at least 10 times, and called and left messages. They ghosted us. They seized thousands of kilos from

Comment · Fri, October 22, 2021 · 1 pts

Are you thinking of robbing us? LOL

Comment · Fri, October 22, 2021 · 1 pts

A B complex is in the works. We are still formulating and deciding on forms, though. The final formulation is not 100% settled yet. We also do have some longevity things in the works, along with a possible Natrium stack

Comment · Fri, October 22, 2021 · 1 pts

We basically force-feed a couple interns, lock them in a room, then videotape them. It's not perfect, but is really fun! LOL, no. We have a formal beta test process for it. Anyone that works for us can participate. We h

Comment · Fri, October 22, 2021 · 1 pts

We do have a lot of people that are passionate about nootropics and supplements, but not everyone is. Everyone in the lab is passionate about chemistry, though. That's a must when working in the lab. They like using scie

Comment · Fri, October 22, 2021 · 1 pts

The only way to hold companies accountable would be a completely separate industry association. That association would have to not be funded by the labs or brands. It would have to exist solely to be a watchdog, and it w

Comment · Fri, October 22, 2021 · 1 pts

If I focused on the frustration, I would never get anything done. It does suck, but I have to let go of the things I can't change in the current moment, and focus on the ones I can. That's all any of us can do. I really

Comment · Fri, October 22, 2021 · 1 pts

Probably not, but I will certainly try to get it out as quickly as we can. There is a lot of steps between making lab scale batches and getting it up to production scale. I also want to do more beta testing, because I am

Comment · Fri, October 22, 2021 · 1 pts

[It's a no-no, and I like it!](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E6KEapO1awc)

Comment · Fri, October 22, 2021 · 1 pts

My pleasure! What do you mean by sampling rates? Do you mean how often do we test batches? We test every single batch that enters our facility. We think skip-lot testing is ridiculous. If you don't get data on every sing

Comment · Fri, October 22, 2021 · 1 pts

Scientific rigor is paramount for us. I don't just want to do the minimum to say we tested things and call it a day. I want to ensure our processes and procedures are done intelligently and rigorously to ensure that I ca

Comment · Fri, October 22, 2021 · 1 pts

We are beta testing it right now. We made our ultimate extraction 100% more efficient, but we think it altered the effects slightly. So right now we are testing them back to back to see what we think. Then we have to set

Comment · Fri, October 22, 2021 · 1 pts

Hey, if it works it works. My issue with them isn't that the stuff is fake or doesn't work. It's that they use no science, or improper science, to make claims they can't prove or are provably false. Doing things right is

Comment · Fri, October 22, 2021 · 1 pts

You should listen to his whole discography. Truly one of the great artists of our generation.

Comment · Fri, October 22, 2021 · 1 pts

Nothing set in stone, but we are working on it. I've been personally trying out extracts and seeing what I react best to. Then we have to connect the analytical side to correlate those effects with certain actives. Then

Comment · Fri, October 22, 2021 · 1 pts

Great minds think alike! It's something I have considered for years. I would just want to make sure we structured it properly to make sense for everyone and be sustainable.

Comment · Fri, October 22, 2021 · 1 pts

We are in beta testing now. We improved our extraction efficiency by a lot in the larger batch. However, the effects have changed. We are testing and discussing strategies now. Our latest extract batch is a more "pure" e

Comment · Fri, October 22, 2021 · 1 pts

Our bank won't allow it, unfortunately. We sold lots of bromantane on Ceretropic, but our current bank thinks it is too risky.

Comment · Fri, October 22, 2021 · 1 pts

Unfortunately not. Shipping costs have increases twice this year alone. We are losing lots of money every month on shipping as it is, and it doesn't seem to be getting any better. The state of the worldwide shipping syst