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The Shilajit Fulvic Acid Myth

Shilajit is often sold in the West with high standardized levels of fulvic acid as an active ingredient.

Fulvic acid has benefits but was never the active ingredient or a relevant marker compound in shilajit or any regional variations thereof. The fact is that fulvic acid is popularized by unscrupulous, greedy marketers who sell “shilajit” spiked with fulvic acid.

That being said, if you are looking for a pure fulvic acid supplement, it is less expensive and makes more sense to purchase a fulvic acid supplement at a fraction of a cost of genuine of shilajit resin.

Contents

Health Benefits of Fulvic Acid

Fulvic Acid
Infographic of commonly promoted benefits of fulvic acid.

Fulvic acid benefits is, for a number of reasons, quite a topic.

A basic search on PubMed, which is the largest repository of medicine and health-related research information, yields only eight relevant results under the query: fulvic acid supplement.  Out of these eight articles, only two are on the actual research of fulvic acid supplementation. One article talks about supplementing to pigs and the second to chickens. The interesting fact is that in the case of pigs the there was an improved lipid (fat) metabolism. In the case of chickens, they grew better.

The overwhelming majority of results under a query: fulvic acid yielded over 1200 results but most of them had nothing to do with health effects of fulvic acid. Those articles were on soil, soil health, and chemistry specific to fulvic acid.

Basically, it’s not the most impressive supplement and if that was all shilajit has going for it, shilajit fulvic acid extractions would be far more popular and shilajit resins would not be dominating the market the way they are. That’s a simple matter of value and economics.

This is an article about fulvic acid supplementation and athough the research is loose I hope it’s about the best information out there on the subject.

Active Ingredients and Marker Compounds

Because of the potentially dangerous side effects from low-quality and fake suppliers, I personally take this Shilajit from Lost Empire Herbs and recommend it based on its superior quality and value. Click the link or image to see how their extraction process is second-to-none and get 15% off your first order. They have the best pitch, powder or resin available!

Active ingredients and marker compounds are two different things.

An active ingredient is something that makes a substance work; a marker compound is a substance which identifies the substance. Marker compounds can be shared between different substances.

For Shilajit of high quality, this is where it gets tricky, and marketers start spinning the wheel. There are very few manufacturers in the world capable of producing and maintaining high-quality standard for shilajit.

There are many more manufacturers who are capable of producing shilajit imitations. Imitations are usually made of soil. Soil is what has very high amount of fulvic acid. For humans neither soil nor fulvic acid ever produced the same benefits as shilajit or any regional variations such as mumie, salajeet or bragshun.

How is genuine Shilajit made?

Genuine shilajit is made of shilajit-bearing rocks or stones.

Traditionally it was never made from sedimentary rock formations or soils. There is a lot of testing and purification involved, during the process of actually making shilajit. There are several generations of shilajit resin, and it will take multiple articles to cover each consecutive generation.

Here I’ll simply describe how the very basic shilajit is made:

One collects the shilajit bearing rocks. They are much harder to find, identify and collect than one would think they are. Good quality raw material is what often defines the quality of the final shilajit resin.

One removes large debris from them, (such as stone, sand, and pebbles), dissolves the rocks in the water, and then evaporates the water. What remains is the resin with different levels of moisture. The result is what traditionally known as shilajit.

The lower the generation of resin the more “problems” and less benefit such resin will have.

Currently, there are at least 3 different generations of genuine shilajit which I am aware of. The third generation is pretty much shilajit of the 21st century where all the classical benefits of shilajit resins remain and purity and bioavailability are much higher than in previous generation resins. Newer generations resins have more benefits as well.

Shilajit research: Amino acids, ashless humic acids, DBPs and micro-nutrients as markers.

Glycine
The molecular structure of glycine the simplest marker compound found in quality shilajit.

In modern times, the most quality non-commercial research on Shilajit comes from classic Soviet science, which clearly identified numerous active ingredient and marker compounds in shilajit. The Soviets did an enormous amount of research on the chemistry and use of Shilajit in humans. They needed such research because they used shilajit heavily for their athletes in the Olympics, the Soviet space program, and the Russian military.

The simplest identified compounds are glycine in its free form and ashless humic acids (pdf).

In conclusion…

What I’ve said here contradicts a lot of marketing materials you may have read about shilajit fulvic acid. My hope is that what I shared with you here can give a perspective on where I am coming from and why I believe a lot of claims I read online are hype and fluff, not substance.

When I recommend Lost Empire Herbs, it is because they are the only company which extensively tests the product, using real marker compounds at every stage. Their material comes from Himalayan and Altai mountains. Their tests are based on research and not marketing trends. The process of how they make it is clearly disclosed in their patent application and on their website, and they have anti-counterfeiting measure included in their packaging (counterfeiting popular shilajit brands is a lot more common than you might imagine).

So If you were wondering, yes I am biased toward the higher standards of quality, transparency and efficacy of Lost Empire Herbs. I highly recommend that you do your research and don’t fall for the shilajit fulvic acid myth but instead seriously look at them as your source for highest-quality genuine shilajit.

Additional Reading on Shilajit and its Side Effects and Benefits




Lastly, I want you to know that I personally get almost all of my herbs from Lost Empire Herbs. Their sourcing is the best in the business and many of their herbs are grown in the USA. Click here to learn about their patented Full-Spectrum Extraction process and get 15% off your first order! Tip: Be sure to sign up for their newsletter at the top.

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5 thoughts on “The Shilajit Fulvic Acid Myth”

  1. I have strong feeling this article was set up to compensate low % of fulvic acid in purblack (below 4% according to their own analysis, which has disappeared from their website now).

    It is fact that Russian quality control IS using fulvic acid as quality marker, not ‘”ashless humic acid” as you say in article. I’ve never seen that on certificate, but fulvic acid is written. The quality standard is 7%, everything below that level is not allowed to be sold as mumie (shilajit) in RF. It is fact, not opinion!

    I have used purblack and thought it different from what I was used to (as former citizen of USSR I used mumie). When I showed it to friend visiting from Uzbekistan he tasted it and started laughing. His family have harvested and processed mumie for 3 generations. This is not good was his opinion. Very poor quality. This is mumie ?

    I think you are trying to sell purblack and article is sales talk only.

    • I wrote this article to address some stupid claims made by companies trying to push bad product as premium. Believe what you like but do the research yourself. Shilajit has some serious unsupported claims including, Fulvic acid, 85 minerals and anything related to hair regrowth or ED.

  2. Quality Shilajit doesn’t just come from PurBlack, many other companies offer pure Shilajit resin that has also gone through the cold refining method to preserve enzymes and other bioavailable constituents.

    I’ve been taking Shilajit for 4 months every morning, and so far 95% if the health claims have come true. No ED, increased focus, much more energy, and a much more regulated sleep cycle. If posting affiliate ads, make sure you include all the facts!

  3. Yet another disinfo article masked behind an affiliate link at the end.

    Do yourself a favor and do some real independent research rather than blindly parroting what you’ve been told to say by the owner of purblack.

    I won’t plug my company here but we also get from the altai mountains and have third-party lab tests to verify our 44% fulvic acid content.

    I shopped around for quite some time before finding a shilajit company 2 dedicate my future towards, and test it out purblack well along with 10 other companies that lead the market right now.

    Guess what? I didn’t feel anything special from it. It’s just like the rest of the standard shilajit out there, with a very low fulvic acid content. I pioneered this mineral for agricultural use, and needed to choose a reliable source before teaming up with one of these companies. All I will say is I did not team up with purblack for a reason.

    I encourage everyone to do their own research rather than believing articles like this on the internet that are motivated by affiliate profit margins. Always ask for a signed third party lab test and look for every heavy metal that could be potentially dangerous to human health. This includes aluminum.

    Be safe out there folks!

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