^
So it appears there was one human study that focused on the potential benefits during resistance training. All things considered, examine ranked them as minor at best.
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/25352765
However, it does not seem that the participants were given ursolic acid that had any absorption enhancement. Therefore only 0.06% (oral bioavailability per examine) of the UA was actually absorbed. Based on this, we can assume that the Ursolic Acid Cyclodextrin Complex in HH6 is, or the transdermal preparation in Ur-Spray would yield more significant results.
Along with this, we can also assume that the aforementioned side effects that have no human studies would also be more likely to occur (if they actually occur in humans) with the more bioavailable products.
One question that concerns me though, is whether or not UA can increase muscle growth or leave users with increased strength post-cessation.
The paper says that whilst participents on UA’s strength was significantly increased during the experiment and ‘body fat percentage was significantly decreased (p<0.001) in the RT+UA group’, ‘body weight, body mass index, lean body mass, glucose, and insulin levels remained unchanged’.
I’m a little confused as to how their body fat percentage could’ve decreased if their body weight and lean body mass were unchanged.
If the participents’ lean body mass didn’t change then did UA induce enhanced muscle growth?
Additionally, I’m disappointed that the researchers didn’t monitor the subjects after the experiment as I’d like to whether or not their strength returned to baseline after they stopped taking UA
There’s a Russian ecdysteroid that I was researching earlier this year called rhanderol / rhaponticum. The articles cited by examine.com and the individual accounts that people on AM gave all said that rhanderol supplementation leads to significant increases in strength and MPS. The issue however, is that none of the papers cited followed the participants after the experiments ended, whilst the AM folks broadly said that their strength slowly returned to their pre-supplementation level or at best, decreased significantly. It needs to be said that less than half a dozen people on AM posted saying that they’d tried rhanderol.
Rhanderol is a plant-derived ecdysteroid extracted from maral root.
Ursolic acid is a plant-derived ecdysteroid commonly extracted from rosemary.
Ursolic acid is starting to sound rather similar to rhanderol to me