Comment · Wed, February 16, 2022 · ND Owner
Question about Ginkgo Biloba 24%/6% versus ND's 10%/2%
Original post in this thread
Visor_Thrower · 8 points
ND makes 10% kaempferol 2% bilobalide Ginkgo Biloba, but I'm wondering if you tested high quality Ginkgo (such as Pure Encapsulations' Gingko 50) because 10%/2% just seems like a subset of 24%/6%. MYASD claims he standardized the two most important components, but ginkgolide A and B are both involved in the anticoagulant effects (and thus, I'm assuming, the improvement in microcirculation). I buy many supplements from ND but to be honest I'm leaning towards Pure Encapsulations Ginkgo 50 simply for the more broad spectrum extract. Thoughts? Thanks.
What they were answering
Direct reply to the original post — see the thread post above.
u/MisterYouAreSoDumb · ND Owner
Ginkgo is one of the most adulterated products on the market. It's why we spent so long to source and make ours to the exact specifications we wanted. You are correct in saying that kaempferol is a flavonoid and bilobalide is a terpene lactone, so assuming that extracts that claim to be 24% flavone and 6% terpene lactones might be similar isn't off base. However, it has become so common to spike shittier extracts with cheap flavones and terpenes that the majority of the market is that way now. Getting a high-quality ginkgo raw material and extracting it to get a quality extract is very expensive, which is why most manufacturers cut corners.
They are using cheap quercetin and rutin to boost the flavone levels to 24%. Up to 75% of samples on the market showed they were adulterated. We decided to set our own specifications to two marker compounds that we set after looking at a bunch of extracts out there. Our extract doesn't just have those, though. Our extract actually has over 24% flavones and 6% terpene lactones. We decided against putting that on the label to make it clear we are standardizing specifically ourselves to our own STAG to ensure consistency between batches. We have seen bilobalide numbers vary up to 10X between samples that all passed for 24%/6%. One sample might have 2% bilobalide and the other 0.2%, while both still had totals of 24% flavones and 6% terpene lactones. However, one extract would feel totally different than the other. Both samples would pass other vendor's testing, though. Yes, they would both pass Pure Encapsulations' testing. However, one would fail our testing. We wanted this because we want every single batch we bring out to feel the same as the batch before it. Consistency is the name of the game here, and simplifying it down to just 24% and 6% loses that specificity. We have also tested multiple things from Pure Encapsulations in the past that have failed our testing. I would never use one of their products again after the data I have seen from our lab.
Here are the exact numbers in our extract:
Flavone Glycosides: 24.6%
* Quercetin Glycoside: 11.5%
* Kaempherol Glycoside: 10.7%
* Isorhamnetin Glycoside: 2.40%
Terpene Lactones: 6.16%
* Bilobalide: 2.46%
This is exactly what we were going for. Maybe it was a mistake for us to leave the 24%/6% info off? I just wanted to make it clear ours was different than the generic stuff out there. It took us a while to find an extract that actually met our specs. Maybe we should make this more clear on the label and product page. Another aspect of this is the most recent USP monograph dictates that after hydrolysis, the ratio of kaempferol to quercetin should be not less than 0.7 (ours is 0.93%), and the ratio of isorhamnetin to quercetin should be not less than 0.1 (ours is 0.20%).