Comment · Mon, June 8, 2026 · ND Owner
Concerns about Cistanche Supercritical Extract & Steroidogenesis: Does Acteoside/Verbascoside actually drop Testosterone? (Looking at this 2015 study)
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CitronOk9793 · 11 points
Hey everyone,
I've been planning to refine my supplement stack for steroidogenesis, and like many here, I always assumed \Cistanche tubulosa\ was a definitive "pro-testosterone" herb. I've taken it for years from them, to good effect. Including the super critical I find very energizing .
However, I recently came across this 2015 study from \Molecular & Cellular Toxicology\:
\\"Acteoside reduces testosterone by inhibiting cAMP, p450scc, and StAR in rat Leydig cells"\\ (https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s13273-015-0002-x)
For those unfamiliar, \*\acteoside\\ is just another name for \\verbascoside\\*. The researchers found that isolated acteoside actually \reduced\ testosterone production in rat Leydig cells by down-regulating cAMP and suppressing key steroidogenic proteins/enzymes like StAR (Steroidogenic Acute Regulatory protein) and p450scc (cholesterol side-chain cleavage enzyme).
This has me somewhat concerned, especially when looking at higher-end extracts. For instance, Nootropics Depot’s \*\Supercritical CO2 Cistanche Extract\\ is standardized specifically to be very high in \\acteoside\\*. If isolated acteoside suppresses the fundamen…
What they were answering
Evil_Squirrel_72 · 3 points
Did some quick googling and the parts I lookup up checks out. Where did you get all this info (aka how you get so smart about this)?
u/MisterYouAreSoDumb · ND Owner
I have a team of scientists where all we do all day long is talk about mechanisms and the science, then perform analysis in the lab to try to prove it. Every single Monday we have a call with the team, that usually lasts at least 5-6 hours, where we collaboratively discuss research we have found and data that we have gathered on it. My team is up to 95 people now. Between 20 and 30 of them are working on science. We are doing cool high level science that nobody else in the world is doing, and we are collaborating with other organizations that are doing the same. Most of what we do I don't publicly talk about.