Recently, we received the following comment regarding our Shilajit.
“I can understand the fact that the Your 3rd Pty labs don’t have the ability to do identity testing on Shilajit. That’s fine, but I can’t understand for the life of me why on earth there is no testing which shows what IS in it, that would be in it, if it was in fact Shilajit.I don’t understand how you’ve been advertising 51% fulvic acid for years on your shilajit with no testing whatsoever, provided to your customers, that there’s any fulvic acid existing in it. Why on Earth can’t you at least provide tests that prove your Shilajit has this 51% fulvic acid figure that you’ve been advertising it has for years and years. If you can get heavy metal testing then there should be no reason that you can’t get testing on the amount of mineral content that would normally be found in a sample of Shilajit. I have always liked your guys’s stuff but I’ve always had an issue with things like that. I find that when intelligent people Will not provide documentation of something as simple as their lifelong advertising that their Shilajit contains so much more fulvic acid than everybody else’s they put it right on the bag, something is amiss. They won’t give any evidence for why on Earth they advertise their shilajit contains this much fulvic acid. How about some tests that provide evidence of the minerals you claim Your Shilajit is packed full of. And maybe with some actual percentages listed. I’m not asking for anything out of the ordinary… I’m not asking for anything above and beyond What should already have been provided to us. Dudes what is the deal here????”
– Edmund
You know what, he’s right!
Our main lab did not do the testing. Since we’re a relatively small team, that just got back-burnered and we hadn’t been seeking one that could perform the testing.
We did have the results from the supplier as can be seen here, showing the powder contained 68% fulvic acid in the most recent batch, even higher than the 51% promised. This was done using a UV light method, which is important for later.
And here’s where it gets complicated…
We found a new lab that could test not just fulvic acid, but humic acids too. This lab did not use the UV light method. Instead it uses the IHSS/Lamar/AOAC method which is based on chemistry.
This difficulty arises because Shilajit often contains various other elements like mineral salts, proteins, sugars, and substances that look like fulvic acid but aren’t, such as lignosulfonates. The International Organization for Standardization (ISO) concurs with the LAMAR definition, which states that true fulvic acids are those that avoid water (hydrophobic), have low sulfur levels, and don’t contain any lignosulfonates.
What does this mean? Different numbers…
Here’s our test results:
If you don’t want to click on the reports themselves, here’s what they say. Using the new method…
Our Shilajit Resin came in at 10.34% fulvic acid and 5.91% humic acid.
Our Shilajit Powder came in at 28.12% fulvic acid and 3.29% humic acid.
Obviously, these are lower than the standard of 51% fulvic acid we were stating. As such that comment has been removed from the powder label.
We believe that this chemical method is more accurate and will be using it going forward.
Note that this is a single batch that was tested. We will be testing more. It’s shilajit, a mountain sourced substance, so there likely is some variation, maybe even a lot from batch to batch. But only time will tell. With that we may be able to establish a more accurate standard.
This is another step in our continued commitment to quality.
And that’s not all about Shilajit. There’s another tricky test result on a different topic I’ll be sharing with you soon.
In this case the squeaky wheel got the grease. Is there anything else we’re dropping the ball on that we should be covering? If you’ve got an idea hit the comments below and let us know.
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