Let me start off this post with my personal thoughts. In a perfect world, what supplement companies place on a label is what is contained in the product, thus mitigating the need for any regulatory involvement. As seen below, this isn’t 100%. Therefore, I believe it is in consumers best interests to ban yohimbe and its alkaloids in dietary supplements. I believe people should be able to consume what they want, but only if they’re certain of what they’re consuming. This is fundamentally necessary. I write this piece knowing my opinion won’t be popular. I hope you continue reading so the community can have a healthy debate on the topic.
What is Yohimbe?
Yohimbe is an evergreen tree native to Western and Central Africa. Yohimbine, which is commonly used in dietary supplements, is found within the bark. Yohimbe has a host of other alkaloids, however yohimbine is what is most commonly consumed.
Dosages used?
Dosage varies, but for fat burning, 0.2mg/kg bodyweight is common with yohimbine. This amount is reduced quite a bit if taken with synergists. A good read here: http://anabolicminds.com/forum/supplements/235182-coops-corner-4-a.html
Benefits?
Erectile Dysfunction: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/m/pubmed/9649257/
Fat Loss: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/m/pubmed/17214405/
Side effects?
Anxiety, Cortisol, Blood Pressure, Heart Rate: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/21710402
[granted, this was done at 0.4mg/kg, but people have similar side effects at lower dosages as well]
What’s the big concern?
What I want to discuss today isn’t the concern of the side effects. These are easily found all over the internet. My concern is that we don’t know how much we’re consuming. Below we can see that labeling inaccuracies run rampant, and it truly matters for an ingredient that is stimulatory, potentially anxiogenic, and dosed in the small milligrams range.
Cohen et all analyzed 49 brands of supplements labelled as containing yohimbe or yohimbine. They shopped at seven major retailers. 11/49 listed a specific quantity of yohimbine, while the rest didn’t specify the amount (assuming a prop blend). Of the 11 that listed an exact amount, actual content ranged from 23% to 147% of what the label claimed.
“The quantity of the most active alkaloid, yohimbine, per recommended serving ranged from none detected to 12.1 mg. Thirty‐nine percent of the supplements (19/49) did not contain rauwolscine and corynanthine suggesting that the yohimbine was either from highly processed plant extract or synthetic in origin. Only 11 supplement brands (22%, 11/49) listed a specific quantity of yohimbine on the label. Most of these were inaccurately labelled (actual content ranged from 23% to 147% of the content on the label). Eighteen percent (9/49) of the supplements' labels did not provide any information about yohimbine's adverse effects. Of the 49 yohimbine supplement brands sold at seven major retail chains in the USA, only 4.1% (2/49) provided consumers with both accurate information about the quantity of yohimbine as well as information about yohimbine's known adverse effects.”
https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1002/dta.1849
Another time label claim issues came up:
"The chromatographic fingerprint analysis was applied to the analysis of 18 yohimbe commercial dietary supplement samples. Quantitation of yohimbine, the traditional method for analysis of yohimbe barks, were also performed to evaluate the results of the fingerprint analysis. Wide variability was observed in fingerprints and yohimbine content among yohimbe dietary supplement samples. For most of the dietary supplements, the yohimbine content was not consistent with the label claims."
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/22221902?dopt=Abstract
Yohimbine supplements have been banned in other countries already. People react unpredictably, which is made worse by the fact that labels may be inaccurate.
Thoughts?
What is Yohimbe?
Yohimbe is an evergreen tree native to Western and Central Africa. Yohimbine, which is commonly used in dietary supplements, is found within the bark. Yohimbe has a host of other alkaloids, however yohimbine is what is most commonly consumed.
Dosages used?
Dosage varies, but for fat burning, 0.2mg/kg bodyweight is common with yohimbine. This amount is reduced quite a bit if taken with synergists. A good read here: http://anabolicminds.com/forum/supplements/235182-coops-corner-4-a.html
Benefits?
Erectile Dysfunction: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/m/pubmed/9649257/
Fat Loss: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/m/pubmed/17214405/
Side effects?
Anxiety, Cortisol, Blood Pressure, Heart Rate: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/21710402
[granted, this was done at 0.4mg/kg, but people have similar side effects at lower dosages as well]
What’s the big concern?
What I want to discuss today isn’t the concern of the side effects. These are easily found all over the internet. My concern is that we don’t know how much we’re consuming. Below we can see that labeling inaccuracies run rampant, and it truly matters for an ingredient that is stimulatory, potentially anxiogenic, and dosed in the small milligrams range.
Cohen et all analyzed 49 brands of supplements labelled as containing yohimbe or yohimbine. They shopped at seven major retailers. 11/49 listed a specific quantity of yohimbine, while the rest didn’t specify the amount (assuming a prop blend). Of the 11 that listed an exact amount, actual content ranged from 23% to 147% of what the label claimed.
“The quantity of the most active alkaloid, yohimbine, per recommended serving ranged from none detected to 12.1 mg. Thirty‐nine percent of the supplements (19/49) did not contain rauwolscine and corynanthine suggesting that the yohimbine was either from highly processed plant extract or synthetic in origin. Only 11 supplement brands (22%, 11/49) listed a specific quantity of yohimbine on the label. Most of these were inaccurately labelled (actual content ranged from 23% to 147% of the content on the label). Eighteen percent (9/49) of the supplements' labels did not provide any information about yohimbine's adverse effects. Of the 49 yohimbine supplement brands sold at seven major retail chains in the USA, only 4.1% (2/49) provided consumers with both accurate information about the quantity of yohimbine as well as information about yohimbine's known adverse effects.”
https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1002/dta.1849
Another time label claim issues came up:
"The chromatographic fingerprint analysis was applied to the analysis of 18 yohimbe commercial dietary supplement samples. Quantitation of yohimbine, the traditional method for analysis of yohimbe barks, were also performed to evaluate the results of the fingerprint analysis. Wide variability was observed in fingerprints and yohimbine content among yohimbe dietary supplement samples. For most of the dietary supplements, the yohimbine content was not consistent with the label claims."
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/22221902?dopt=Abstract
Yohimbine supplements have been banned in other countries already. People react unpredictably, which is made worse by the fact that labels may be inaccurate.
Thoughts?