This Herb Is Stronger Than Tribulus

[Elie]

Im not sure...

based on your research you suggested the optimal dose was 2.5g -5g
that is the raw ground up stem and root? not a concentrated extract, right?
Any additional insight into its effects from personal experience?

 

[Mauritio]

based on your research you suggested the optimal dose was 2.5g -5g
that is the raw ground up stem and root? not a concentrated extract, right?
Any additional insight into its effects from personal experience?

I dont know . This is a topic that confused me as well. like wuld a 10:1 extract mean you would have to take 10 times the dose if it wasnt an extract ?

 

[Elie]

I dont know . This is a topic that confused me as well. like wuld a 10:1 extract mean you would have to take 10 times the dose if it wasnt an extract ?

Yes, exactly. Assuming you are concentrating the desired active compounds at the same ratio.
I noticed some supplements guarantee the presence of a percentage of the actives, as in 50% Echinacoside + 10% Acetoside.
Perhaps that is a better measuring stick.
I will look.more into this.

 

[Lejeboca]

I dont know . This is a topic that confused me as well. like wuld a 10:1 extract mean you would have to take 10 times the dose if it wasnt an extract ?

My understanding from reading the Methods section of the paper, you've presented in This Herb Is Stronger Than Tribulus is that the Cistanche tubulosa extract (CTE) given to animals is an ethanol extract obtained as follows:

Stems from flowering plants were dried, crushed into powder and diluted in 70% ethanol at the (weight-to-volume) ratio of 1g of dried herb to 5ml of 70% ethanol. The paper doesn't say how long the powder remained in ethanol. I imagine that quite briefly, like 24 hours, judging from their freezing procedure that followed. Then, plant marc is typically filtered and the ethanol plant extract remains. For more extract purity, the authors added another amount of 70% ethanol to the extract and then filtered.​

Hence, I'd say that the obtained extract is still of 1:5. Herbal tinctures in commerce always show the extract ratio on the label.

​

• 1:5 ratio is typical for dried herbs and anything along this ratio (such as, 1:4 or 1:6, would work at the same dose).
  
• I haven't seen extracts weaker than 1:6 in commerce.
• If I were to buy or make a CTE , I'd forgo the double extraction part b/c, for me, it would be enough purity of the extract and I reckon the potency will remain the same. I suspect the authors needed the double ethanol extract just to observe/measure better its compounds.

this is from the "analysis and Chemical Components" section - "The solution in 40-fold dilution " - would this necessarily imply a 40:1 extract

This section was the treatment of CTE for the analysis only. the 40-fold dilution is preparation for such an analysis and not for what to give to animals.
Note that methanol is toxic, so can't give it as extract medium to animals, but methanol is better solvent than ethanol since it has a lower boiling point. Therefore is is often used in the papers studying herbs.