Behind the Scenes at Nootropics Depot: Inside Our Pharmaceutical-Grade Testing Labs 🧪

Yes, ours is more heavy on hericene A/B and C, along with hericenone C and D, and has more total peaks. Amyloban has more hericenone F and G and fewer peaks. We also have two more unlabeled peaks that we think are hericenes/hericenones, but are still structurally elucidating. Ours also has a big peak for ergosterol that is not in the Amyloban sample. As to how that affects the effects, we are studying that now in our cell culture lab. To date, nobody has done comparison bioactivity research in human brain cells on each individual erinacine, hericene, and hericenone to compare them to each other. We are hoping to answer all that with data soon. I have some predictions as to what that will show, but I will mostly wait till we have some actual data to speculate publicly. I do think the magic will be found in specific combinations, not just in single bioactives, but we will see.

I also have not personally taken the Amyloban. I will next time I go into the office. I have been testing much stronger extracts we are working on instead. I've been taking an extract that is giving me 50mg of hericenes and hericenones per dose, which is orders of magnitude more than any other product in the world. I wish I could say it was like the movie Limitless, and my brain exploded with activity. However, I have never been one that has gotten strong acute effects from lion's mane. The only times I have gotten strong immediate perceptible effects from lion's mane was on some special mycelium extracts we made a few years ago that has some more rare eriancines. Erinacine A is very good at increasing NGF, but that's not really something you feel right away, if at all. You can feel the effects of that over time, with healing of nerves and such. However, it's not something you take and feel strong cognitive effects after one dose. However, there are some other erinacines that seem to have a strong acute effect, and we have gotten some receptor binding data to explain why that is. I won't disclose that yet, as we are still working on collaborations around that data, but it is pretty cool. Our goal is to make both the most functional lion's mane from an NGF/BDNF perspective, but I also want to make the most effective from a perceptible standpoint as well. If I can do both in one, great! However, the compounds and mechanisms for each are pretty different.

As for the humps in the chromatogram, that's because of the dilution factor my lab tech used in this run. I am having them adjust it, because this is what happens when you do a really high dilution factor. Look at the Y axis on the left for the AU. Those are super low levels, because this was a 50X dilution factor. That's fine for calculations, but it makes the baseline wonky sometimes. They really should do a lower dilution factor, so we get higher AU in the peaks, and a flatter baseline. As I alluded to above, one interesting thing is that we see a lot of ergosterol in our lion's mane, but not in the Amyloban.

It's this peak in our chromatogram.

I am going to have my team start labeling that peak in the chromatograms, and quantifying it in the numbers, so everyone can see. What does that mean in relation to ours compared to Amyloban? Well we usually only see erogsterol in meaningful amounts in batches with healthy large fruiting bodies. You would usually see it if there were good levels of hericenes and hericenones. However, Amyloban does claim to be an extract. They are likely extracting things to concentrate the hericenes and hericenones, and losing the ergosterol in the process. It's hard to say without seeing their flow chart, but they do claim to have a patented extraction system for it, so that makes the most sense. Our 1:1 uses hot water as a way to break down the polymers in the cell walls of the mushroom, to make them more bioaccessible. However, nothing is lost or removed in our 1:1 process like a traditional solvent extraction. These hericene and hericenone levels we have are NATIVE levels, not concentrated level from extraction. Our extraction work has made much more concentrated powders than that when doing extracts. So our native hericene/hericenone levels are already beating Amyloban. Our upcoming extracts are going to smash it. As for the 8:1, I want to keep some of that work private for now, as I don't want to clue anyone in to what we have figured out. I will say that there is more to lion's mane than just hericenes and hericenones, and our 8:1 is likely going to change a bit with some of what we have figured out.