Comment · Sat, May 25, 2024 · Nootropics Depot & Natrium Health
Consumer Labs latest results for Ashwagandha are disappointing. Nootropic Depot, LEF, Swanson, others fail.
Original post in this thread
flashlightsmurf · 119 points
Consumer Labs tested Ashwagandha supplements recently, only 5 of 13 of the products they tested passed. Some of the products that failed were very popular, so if you aren't seeing any impact maybe that's why.
As usual they tested ones with rice fillers for heavy metals and potency. All the failures were because products did not have the claimed amount of withanolides expected. Tests were sent to second lab to confirm.
Every product containing KSM-66 failed, there could be a problem with Ixoreal. There are details in the article about some disputes they had with Ixoreal and how to test KSM-66 (our formula is too advanced) but the monograph was never updated and so CL did the same tests, found the same results, and reported the same lol.
Products that failed:
* Life Extension Ashwaganda
* Nootropics Depot Shoden
* Pure Encapsulations Ashwagandha
* Swanson Ultimate Ashwagandha
Their top pick was NOW® Ashwagandha 450 mg.
During the LEF super sale I purchased a year supply of Ashwagandha, now I need to see if I can get my money back :/
What they were answering
they-were-here-first · 23 points
This is Consumer LAB, not Consumer REPORTS. CL doesn't work with appliances 😂.
The testing they did was based off USP protocol. I probably would have waited if I were them, but they followed the only testing available. USP should have updated their testing method.
u/MisterYouAreSoDumb · Nootropics Depot & Natrium Health
Consumer Lab was made aware of this issue almost 5 years ago. I talked about it back then.
https://www.reddit.com/r/NootropicsDepot/comments/dmlck9/consumerlabs_ashwagandha_testing_results/
This was in relation to KSM-66, and we had not yet developed the improved assay methods. However, CL absolutely knows about the issue with the USP monograph and ashwagandha. They willingly chose to put these results out again anyway. It's not in dispute that there are over 40 withanolides in ashwagandha.
https://www.mdpi.com/1420-3049/14/7/2373/pdf?version=1403112567
Looking at only 8 of them, when we know there are at least 40, is crazy to me! You are right, USP should have updated their monograph a long time ago. Even so, if Consumer Lab had just decided to rank products based on the USP monograph, and made that clear to people, fine! That's okay with me. You have to pick a monograph and method when testing. That monograph showed that we were the 4th cheapest per mg of withanolides, even though they are not looking at 80% of the withanolides we are. I would have disagreed with them on how they ranked, but at least it would have been a friendly disagreement over monographs. However, they went out and said we didn't meet label claims! That's just not true. Our standardization is based off more than the 8 in the USP monograph, which we made clear when we released Shoden. USP is old as fuck. Their methods were made decades ago, and based more around pharma than supplements. Saying we failed to meet our label claim is likely defamation and libel. I suppose we will seen soon enough. I won't let this one go.
https://www.reddit.com/r/NootropicsDepot/comments/i1w47y/shoden_ashwagandha/