Does tongkat ali damage DNA?
Does tongkat ali damage DNA?
A very small amount of research looking into tongkat ali’s potential risk factors identified a possible effect on DNA in the GI tract. But that research established an oblique correlation, far from any evidence of causation.3 Much more research is needed to clarify the issue, but it’s worth noting that the doses used in that research far exceed typical doses used in nutritional supplements.
Number 5: Herbosophy Tongkat Ali X2
Herbosophy Tongkat Ali X2 extract is a premium supplement standardised to contain 2% Eurycomanone, the active ingredient in Tongkat Ali.
Made from 90% Malaysian Eurycoma Longifolia Root and 10% ginger, this supplement offers the choice of being freshly encapsulated or provided as a loose powder tailored to your preference. With Herbosophy’s Tongkat Ali X2, you can trust in its verified quality and potency, with every serving containing an HPLC-verified 2% Eurycomanone.
Although not widely known among Australians, Herbosophy Tongkat Ali X2 is gaining popularity among first-time buyers from Queensland.
Who might want to look elsewhere?
The 1-3 months it could take to see results from a potent tongkat ali supplement would likely be too long of a wait for certain individuals. Men with clinically significant hypogonadism who are experiencing immediate symptoms would do better to seek prescription interventions like TRT (after appropriate testing, of course).11
The same thing can be said for those experiencing more significant mental health issues, as tongkat ali may be able to help treat certain kinds of mild stress and irritation, but not more significant issues with anxiety and depression that may require more direct professional interventions.
Research into certain potential tongkat ali benefits is also far too immature to suggest it as a daily supplement for those purposes. For example, individuals predisposed to certain cancers from things like genetics or environment shouldn’t look to tongkat ali as a preventive or a cure. A recent overview of tongkat ali’s potential in common cancers reinforces this perspective.12
Best Tongkat Ali Supplements
Elm & Rye offers some of the best tongkat ali supplements available, making them a great choice for those looking to increase their testosterone levels and improve their physical performance. Tongkat ali is one of the most popular natural herbs used for male health and vitality, as it is known to boost energy, strength, mood, and libido. Not only do these supplements provide important trace minerals and vitamins that support overall wellness, but they can also help men achieve greater virility and sexual pleasure. With all these benefits, you're sure to find adding these natural supplements to your daily regimen a rewarding experience.
Looking for a way to incorporate the benefits of natural tongkat ali into your busy lifestyle? Look no further than Penguin CBD Gummies! These delicious gummies are packed with powerful antioxidants and nutrients that will give your body the boost it needs to tackle the day. Say goodbye to expensive pills and boring teas - Penguin CBD Gummies make it easy to get the full benefits of tongkat ali in a tasty and convenient form. So why not give them a try and see how they can improve your overall health and well-being?
Nootropics Depot Tongkat Ali Extract Capsules are formulated with high-quality ingredients and contain 600mg of raw tongkat ali root extract per capsule. They are non-GMO, vegan-friendly, gluten-free, and third-party tested for purity and potency. Tongkat ali has been used traditionally throughout Southeast Asia to support energy levels, libido, and testosterone. With Nootropics Depot Tongkat Ali Extract Capsules, you can be sure that you're receiving some of the best tongkat ali supplements available on the market today.
Clean Nutra Fadogia Tongkat Ali
Looking for a reliable supplement that can help improve your physical and mental performance? Look no further than Clean Nutra's Fadogia Agrestis Tongkat Ali. This powerful supplement is extracted from the Pedalium genus plant and has been used for centuries in Asia for medicinal purposes. It is known for its adaptogenic properties, which can help increase brain function, supports healthy testosterone levels, improves sleep quality, and reduce stress. Clean Nutra's commitment to quality means you can be sure you are getting a trustworthy product that can help give you the boost you need to achieve your goals. So why wait? Try Fadogia Agrestis Tongkat Ali today!
Looking to naturally boost your endurance and energy? Allow us to introduce you to Choq Tongkat, a powerful supplement derived from the tropical Tongkat ali tree in Malaysia. This all-natural remedy has been used for centuries as an anti-fatigue agent and is now available to help you support healthy body functions while improving your vigor and vitality. With scientifically proven results and a long history of medicinal use, Choq Tongkat might just be the natural boost you've been looking for.
Double Wood Supplements
Looking for the gold standard in tongkat ali supplements? Double Wood Supplements' Tongkat Ali Extract Triple Pack is the answer to your search. This reliable and 100% natural pack comes in three unique variations, each with its own set of benefits to suit your needs. Experts suggest taking it 30 minutes before bedtime to achieve maximum absorption and top-notch results. If you're in the market for a high-quality and trustworthy supplement, you won't want to miss out on the Double Wood Supplements Tongkat Ali Extract Triple Pack.
Solaray Tongkat Ali is one of the best tongkat ali supplements available on the market. This supplement is known to help boost testosterone, increase libido, and enhance an overall sense of well-being in men. It works by enhancing natural hormone production processes and also reducing levels of stress hormones like cortisol. Additionally, it can help support prostate health and general reproductive wellness as well as improve athletic performance. Solaray Tongkat Ali is a great choice for those looking for a quality tonic herb to derive the many health benefits it offers.
Whether you're looking for a daily boost of energy or something to increase your libido, Raw Forest Woods Elevated Tongkat Ali Capsules could be the best supplement choice for you. Packed with powerful pure herbal ingredients, these capsules are known to have numerous health benefits, making them one of the best tongkat ali supplements on the market. Combining highly potent extracts from long jack root, often found in traditional Chinese medicines, parts of plants and trees used in South East Asia, and naturally sourced Indonesian plants produce an extract that not only provides extra energy but is guaranteed to give beneficial results. All of their products are manufactured in the Philippines under strict GMP guidelines to ensure every purchase meets their high-quality standards. For those seeking an all-natural supplement that really works, Raw Forest Woods’ Capsules are definitely worth considering.
Dorado Nutrition has formulated two of its best tongkat ali supplements, Fadogia Agrestis and Tongkat Ali. These natural herbal extracts are packed with health benefits, making them ideal additions to any lifestyle. They have been used historically in traditional medicine for centuries, and modern science is only just beginning to uncover the full range of their potential benefits. Dorado Nutrition takes pride in the quality of these supplements, carefully sourcing only the finest ingredients to guarantee the results you're looking for. With these supplements, you can be confident that you're taking a step towards a healthier life.
Summary of recommendations
Best Single-Ingredient
With an unparalleled 10% concentration of eurycomanone, this supplement option can deliver a potent dose in smaller capsules.
Nootropics Depot is available directly from the company’s website or from its storefront on Amazon. First-time buyers are better off buying direct from Nootropics Depot because you’ll only get the same low price from Amazon if you’re prepared to subscribe.
A majority of men seek tongkat ali to improve testosterone levels, sexual performance, and stress management. If that’s you, then this is your most powerful option.
This supplement contains relevant doses of several botanical extracts including tongkat ali, KSM-66 ashwagandha, fenugreek, and maca. It also has vitamins and minerals that many studies connect to healthy testosterone levels (including zinc and vitamin D).
How we evaluated tongkat ali supplements
To evaluate tongkat ali supplements, we considered four key criteria that could pit one offering against another and reveal which would perform the best. We chose these criteria based on our understanding of tongkat ali’s pharmacological potential and what we would anticipate to be the needs of the average consumer.
Let’s take a close look at each criterion to see what companies fared the best.
Winner: Nootropics Depot Tongkat Ali Extract 10% Eurycomanone
Tongkat ali (scientific name: Eurycoma longifolia) houses an abundance of bioactive compounds, from quassinoids and alkaloids to terpenes and steroids.1 Among these, quassinoids make up the majority, and one quassinoid in particular — eurycomanone — has been highlighted as a likely driver of tongkat ali’s positive effects.2
A standardized tongkat ali extract will typically contain between 0.8% and 1.5% eurycomanone. This is true of Physta, one of the more well-regarded and widely tested tongkat ali extracts on the market. But Nootropics Depot manipulates its standardization process further, concentrating the eurycomanone content all the way up to 10%.
The result is a product with a smaller overall dose (100mg compared to the typical 200mg Physta dose) that still delivers more eurycomanone.
Winner: Akarali Physta
From a safety perspective, standardization was a must-have in our eyes, as it ensures you’re getting the same amount of tongkat ali’s active components with each dose. We also didn’t want to put too large a dose in the winner’s circle here, as there’s evidence of potential short-term toxicity at high doses.
Specifically, the European Food Safety Authority identified the potential for tongkat ali to induce DNA damage in the gastrointestinal (GI) system.3 The possible severity of that damage and its consequences were undetermined in the report, but it’s worth noting that the damage was only seen in rats consuming a human equivalent of more than 22g of tongkat ali extract. To put it in perspective, you’d have to consume nearly four bottles of 200mg Physta capsules to reach that dose.
Physta also has the advantage of being subjected to multiple human studies in the past 20 years.4 The studies we’ve reviewed showed one incidence of adverse effects that differed from those seen in a placebo group. We still consider the alternative from Nootropics Depot to be safe, especially since its higher concentration is delivered in an overall smaller tongkat ali dose, but the abundance of data on Physta and its well-known risk profile makes it the obvious choice for safety.
Winner: Bulk Supplements Longjack Root Capsules
When we consider a supplement's potential cost, we consider more than just sticker price, with things like shipping costs, money-back guarantees, and more weighing in our decision. Bulk Supplements, whose tongkat ali already boasted the best sticker price, turned out to be the best pick for cost in general.
Here’s a quick cost comparison among our top tongkat ali supplements:
As you can see, you can get your hands on Bulk Supplements’ tongkat ali for less money up front than any other option, and its cost per gram of tongkat ali is lower — by far — than its competitors. The big caveat is that it’s not a standardized extract, so the exact amount of eurycomanone, saponins, and other constituent parts is both unknowable and likely to vary from one dose to the next. Your next-best budget-conscious option, if you want standardization, is Nootropics Depot’s less potent offering, standardized to 2% eurycomanone
One particularly amazing thing to note is that Innerbody’s Testosterone Support actually provides the same amount of tongkat ali per month as Akarali, but it does so both at a lower price and alongside ten other ingredients designed to boost testosterone levels and impart similar effects as tongkat ali. However, Innerbody’s tongkat ali is not a standardized extract.
Winner: Akarali Physta
Several variables can influence our convenience criterion, from the quality of a company’s site design to its customer service. The sites in question here are all similar enough, as is the customer service. And Bulk Supplements and Innerbody are the only companies that will accept returns on opened products, each for 30 days.
So, instead of focusing on these parameters, we looked at the convenience behind actually taking the tongkat ali in these supplements. Innerbody only offers its supplement as a capsule, Nootropics Depot offers a choice between capsules and tablets for its 10% eurycomanone extract, and Bulk Supplements offers tongkat ali as a capsule or a loose powder.
But Akarali delivers its Physta in several unusual ways, all of which make it the most convenient option for anyone interested in consuming their tongkat ali in a novel form. As with Bulk Supplements, you can choose between capsules and powder, but you can also get Akarali Physta as part of a fizzy energy drink or as part of an instant coffee. Our testers tried the coffee for themselves, and they were pleasantly surprised by the sweetness that the tongkat ali seemed to impart on an otherwise bitter (but not unpleasantly bitter) instant coffee.
Tongkat ali — also known as longjack or Malaysian ginseng — is a Southeast Asian plant traditionally used for its antimalarial and aphrodisiac properties.1 It’s a tall plant, resembling a palm tree but with shorter, more abundant leaves along longer branches.
When we talk about tongkat ali here, we’re discussing it as a supplement, not as the plant Eurycoma longifolia. And as a supplement, tongkat ali may offer many of the benefits for which it has been used in traditional medicine for centuries.
You’ll most often see tongkat ali sold in capsule form, with each capsule containing a powdered extract made from the plant’s roots, leaves, or both (roots are most common). Occasionally, you’ll find powdered extract available on its own (no capsules) or pressed into tablets. Some companies even make it into energy drinks or instant coffees.
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Innerbody pricing and returns
Innerbody provides a combination of bulk and subscription savings on its supplement, which works out like this:
Shipping is free on all Innerbody orders. The company doesn’t yet ship outside the U.S.
There’s a 30-day money-back guarantee on all purchases, which means you can try the product for up to a month and still get all of your money back if you aren’t satisfied. While many studies say tongkat ali takes up to 12 weeks to yield results, we’ve seen some studies state it bears fruit in as little as 28 days, so the 30-day guarantee is just long enough.
Number 3: Herbal Defence Tongkat Ali Root Extract 200:1
Herbal Defence Tongkat Ali Root Extract 200:1 is one of the early Tongkat Ali brands sold in Australia, formulated and sourced from Indonesia.
This supplement is said to have the highest quality and purity of Tongkat Ali. Each bottle contains 60 vegan-friendly capsules, with a potent 500mg of their 200:1 Tongkat Ali extract per capsule. It comprises all-natural ingredients to support men’s health.
Nootropics Depot pricing and returns
Nootropics Depot doesn’t offer subscriptions on either of its tongkat ali supplements, but you can buy a higher-count bottle to save money per dose. Here’s how it works out for each concentration:
Since we’ve come to put a fair amount of stock in eurycomanone concentration, we’d recommend the 10% formulation to anyone with the capital to invest in it. The fact that you get free shipping at the 120-capsule level is rather important here, as Nootropics Depot has the highest shipping costs in our guide. Its lowest rate is $10.20, which is high enough to take the 60-count 10% option from $39.99 to $50.19, for a per-dose price increase from $0.67 up to $0.84.
Unfortunately for anyone who’s unsure tongkat ali will work for them, Nootropics Depot doesn’t offer any kind of money-back guarantee, and it doesn’t accept returns on opened products. That’s in pretty stark contrast to Innerbody and Bulk Supplements, both of which let you try a product for 30 days. We’ve seen some evidence that longjack can have an effect in as little as four weeks, so that 30-day mark may be enough to know whether it works for you.16
Best patented extract
Photo by Innerbody Research
Even in our first round of research review, we noticed the frequency with which Physta was specified as the type of tongkat ali used in numerous studies. This is something that undeniably sets it apart from other tongkat ali supplements, and it should put Physta at the top of the list for anyone who needs to see a brand name in the scientific research before reaching for a given supplement. We’ve been impressed by the research that Physta has been subjected to over the years (26 studies over two decades), though we aren’t wholly convinced that its standardization process puts it head and shoulders above similar products.
That standardization provides a 1.5% eurycomanone concentration, 0.5% less concentrated than Nootropics Depot’s 2% option and 8.5% less than the 10% option. Much of the research into tongkat ali assumes that eurycomanone is the primary driver of its beneficial effects, but Akarali goes a little further in its standardization efforts. It creates a consistent delivery of both eurycomanone and the plant’s other constituent parts, which, according to its website, are glycosaponins (48%), proteins (22%), and polysaccharides (30%).
For those of you with calculators at home, you might notice that 48, 22, 30, and 1.5 add up to 101.5%, so there’s clearly some wiggle room in this formula. We got clarification from Akarali on the issue, and here are the actual numbers:
Akarali deploys its Physta in a few ways. Its capsules are the most straightforward option. They each contain 200mg of Physta, a pretty standard dose compared to what we’ve seen in the research. There’s also a version marketed toward women that contains only 50mg per capsule, but we’ve seen no evidence that women would need a smaller dose than men.
In fact, many of the studies we’ve read that explicitly used Physta administered the same 100-300mg dose to men and women alike. And of the studies that used a 50mg dose, the one that was most successful combined its tongkat ali with 200mg of Labisia pumila, a similar herbal remedy with purported antioxidant properties,18 so we don’t recommend the 50mg women’s dose at this time.19
You can also get the plain tongkat ali powder, an instant coffee infused with tongkat ali, or a fizzy tongkat ali energy drink. The powder’s dose is pretty flexible, but the other two products deliver 70mg and 50mg per dose, respectively.
Photo by Innerbody Research
Longjack coffee is very popular in Southeast Asia, so we ordered some of it for ourselves to try out. Now, in the U.S., instant coffee isn’t well-regarded, at least not since the Starbucks revolution of the 1990s and the Keurig revolution of the late 2000s. But our testers have still had their fair share of instant coffee through the years (including some from Starbucks), and we wanted to see how Akarali’s stacked up. We were pleasantly surprised.
Akarali’s tongkat ali-infused coffee is immediately sweet on the tongue despite not containing any natural or artificial sweeteners or flavorings. That sweetness very quickly gives way to an intensely strong, bitter coffee flavor, but one that’s not unwelcome after the initial sweetness and that more closely resembles the bitterness of Campari or a similar liqueur. The whole thing is pretty well-balanced.
