Comment · Thu, June 27, 2024 · ND Owner
Ecklonia cava update and question
Original post in this thread
Maximum_Jaguar_7957 · 19 points
Any updates on EC or hints on what month it’s releasing? Also a quick question, since 100% of the ec other brands sell is fake how can we be sure if the studies also used real ecklonia cava and if the effects of it aren’t from a different supplement?
What they were answering
Direct reply to the original post — see the thread post above.
u/MisterYouAreSoDumb · ND Owner
It's in my belly right now! We are in the beta testing phase. I am trying out different extracts and standardizations. This one is a tough one, because the stuff everyone has been using for years is fake. I am pretty sure it is a completely different species of seaweed, though; so that has its own effects. For people out there saying they like it, they might just like this other seaweed and think they like Ecklonia cava. This makes it tough for us, because people might be expecting effects that they won't get with real Ecklonia cava. It's why I am spending so much time testing different extracts, and from harvests from different islands, to really get a feel for real Ecklonia. How stupid would it be if we spent years of work finding real Ecklonia cava, working with labs and universities around the world to create reference materials and testing methods for it, and then we release the only real tested Ecklonia on the market... but people prefer this other mislabeled seaweed.
As for the question on the studies, it would be funny (and sad) if they were using fake Ecklonia cava. However, that is a lot less likely when you read the study designs of the papers. These researchers luckily do their due diligence a lot better than random retail brands trying to profit off hype. For the researchers, the science is the goal. For the brands, profit is the goal. Does that mean every single Ecklonia cava study used real material? Not necessarily. I am sure some shittier ones didn't do what is required to ensure their materials were correct. However, most of the ones I have read seem to have taken that seriously. They are also mostly done in Korea and Japan, which have the resources to ensure it's real. Those resources are just not available in North America, and they usually won't talk to Americans for some reason. We are also fairly lucky with Ecklonia cava in that it has a marker compound in it that exists in all real samples, and has validated reference standards: dieckol. If that's not in there, it's not Ecklonia cava.