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By Serge Kreutz (2010)
I've been writing about tongkat ali long before it was popular, for about ten years, and I do feel some responsibility for the reputation of this [marvelous] wonderful herb.
In the past few years, more and more distributors of dietary supplements goes on the tongkat ali industry, and competition between distributors has gone tight.
Tongkat ali (Eurycoma longifolia Jack by its Latin, scientific name) is, yes, one of the most expensive herbals around, for a good reason. Tongkat ali roots take about twenty years to reach a stage of full potency. Because the shrub is hard to cultivate, there's no tongkat ali plantation anywhere in the world. The tree only grows on well drained jungle slopes, partially [protected] covered by a canopy. There may be other yet to be discovered requirements for the habitat, which explains why all attempts to crop the plant for commercial purposes have so far failed. All genuine tongkat ali is harvested in the wild.
Where?
The plant's traditional geographic distribution is in the rainforests of Southeast Asia, and it still only grows in this part of the world. It once was common in all countries of Southeast Asia, from Vietnam to Indonesia, and in all of them, it's valued, and therefore was heavily harvested, for the medicinal properties of its roots. It is unlikely indeed that wherever humans encroach on rainforests, tongkat ali shrubs will be left alone.
The only country where still now, there are areas with a natural prevalence of tongkat ali is Indonesia. Not that tongkat ali would still be common in Indonesia. But Indonesia indeed still is one of a very little number of countries with large stretches of virgin rainforests, and only this is where tongkat ali grows naturally. Not that the foster situation of these virgin rainforests would be guaranteed. They are burned down at an intimidating rate.
Indonesia smoke blankets region
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/5415944.stm
Forest fires rage across Indonesia and Brazil
http://www.greenpeace.org/international/
news/going-up-in-smoke-120906
Entire Rainforests Set to Vanish in Next Decade
http://www.commondreams.org/
headlines03/0705-06.htm
Indonesia has been under huge international pressure not only to control the forest fires that are causing haze problems even thousands of kilometers away, but also to strongly protect the country's rainforests which are of all-important value to the global environment. And indeed, the Indonesian president Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono (SBY), who has previously attended international advice on the civil war in Aceh and other topics, has recommended that the preservation of rainforests is one of his political concerns.
SBY Orders Arrest of Illegal Logging Bosses
http://www.bkpm.go.id/bkpm/
news.php?mode=baca&info_id
=979
Quite possibly, if the tongkat ali supply from Indonesia dries up because of rainforest protection measures, or if at least there are supply constrictions, the price for tongkat ali root and extract may still rise considerably.
[Substantial] Essential price increases are also a discrete hypothesis because China is becoming ever richer ever faster. And no other nation on earth is as warm a user of natural medicines than the Chinese. In China, herbal medicine is not fringe health care; it is on par with Western medicine.
Traditional Chinese medicine http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Traditional_Chinese_medicine
Because China is very wide, whatever is in demand in China is bound to become scarce. And the special an ingredient used in traditional medicine, the more pricey it will] it'll be. This has already happened with another Indonesia-exported natural product, the price for which (even though it is of dubious efficacy) has already skyrocketed because it's sought after in newly rich China. The talk is of bird's nests, which now fetch thousands of US dollars per kg.
Swifts and Trade http://american.edu/ted/SWIFT.HTM
Bird nests at around 2000 US dollars per kg http://www.naturalnest.com/
Bird nests at around 3000 US dollars per kg
In comparison, tongkat ali root (not extract) is still sold at less than $50 per kg.
Retail tongkat ali chipped root and root powder
http://www.tongkatali.org/retailroots.htm
However, not like bird's nests, tongkat ali is not recommended for direct consumption. It should or be boiled as a tea, with the roots discarded, or taken as an extract.
It's not a surprise that when an uncommon and pricey supplement, such as tongkat ali, is traded in an extremely competitive market, there will be scams. A number products traded as tongkat ali have been found combined with hooky pharmaceuticals. They all came from Malaysia.
Health Canada recalls sex enhancer Libidus due to potential risks
Press release by the Chairman of the Drug Control Authority relating to traditional medicines found to contain Tadafil
Tongkat ali extract, as opposed to tongkat ali root powder, is specifically expensive (more expensive than bootleg sildenafil citrate) because the active components are present only in small amounts.
Characterization of the Water Soluble Fraction from the Root Extract of Eurycoma Longifolia
http://www.ceps.com.tw/ec/
ecjnlarticleView.aspx?atliid=59888
&issueiid=5463&jnliid=474
In addition, there's an enormous multitude of active ingredients that all contribute to the unique testosterone-raising ability of this herbal. The best neutral scientific source for checking the active ingredients of tongkat ali (Eurycoma longifolia Jack) is:
Global Information Hub for Integrated Medicine
http://content.nhiondemand.com/
moh/media/monoHerb.asp?objID=
101048&ctype=herb&mtyp=1
While the chemical spectrum of Eurycoma longifolia Jack (tongkat ali) is well authenticated in the scientific literature, the scientific studies into the sexuality-enhancing and testosterone-raising effects of the roots of this plant have not been conducted with specific active components (such as eurycomanone or eurycomalactone) but with whole tongkat ali extract, that wasn't standardized for any single specific active ingredient.
When I say "scientific studies", then I mean studies that have been published in peer-reviewed scientific journals. I have little trust in alleged "unpublished" scientific studies that are quoted on commercial websites, selling specific brand products.
If so called scientific study indeed was regulated in accordance to the accepted standards of the scientific community, and if it produced impressive results, then I wonder why it was not published in a scientific journal. That does not make sense. So, if the study was not clearly invented, it must have been scientifically flawed.
Furthermore, neutral, real science would [aim] intend to study a generic chemical for its pharmaceutical value. Studies that rather use brand name extracts of a strange competition and standardization are most probably fake science. On the other hand, the plan of selling pharmaceuticals and dietary supplements of secret or unpublished ingredients and standardization completely deny established standards of consumer protection.
Apart from that, "standardized extract" is a catch phrase that many supplement consumers associate with high quality.
And so, yohimbe bark extract that is standardized for yohimbine is superior to yohimbe bark extract that's not standardized for yohimbine. For, yohimbine is the most potent of a small range of active components that account for the effect of yohimbe.
Yohimbe standardized for 2 percent yohimbine
http://www.vitacost.com/Twinlab-Yohimbe-Fuel-100-Capsules
Indeed, too, St. John's wort that's standardized for hypericin is superior to St. John's wort extract that is not standardized for hypericin.
St. John's wort recommended to be standardized to 0.3 percent hypericin
http://www.umm.edu/altmed/
ConsHerbs/StJohnsWortch.html
If any of the outstanding tongkat ali extract distributing companies were to come up with an extract standardized for what so is or are the active components, this would be a progress. But yet, there's no clear data which of the numerous active components listed on the above referred-to page of the Global Information Hub for Integrated Medicine is to what extend responsible for which effect.
But the bait is there, for marketing interests, to claim standardization for active ingredients.
For example, for eurypeptides? At a whooping 22 percent.
Peptides what the word eurypeptides hints that we here deal with the peptides of Eurycoma longifolia Jack.
I've found no scientific source that would refer to eurypeptides. So, the product that is claimed to be standardized to 22 percent eurypeptides is standardized to something unidentified in the scientific literature.
It is also not explained at websites that [sell] trade tongkat ali extract, standardized to 22 percent eurypeptides, what these peptides are supposed to be.
Yes, I know what peptides are: short chains of amino acids, held together by peptide bonds. When the chains of amino acids become longer (let's say: more than 50), then we no longer talk of peptides but of proteins.
And so, if those websites that claim to sell standardized tongkat ali extract would offer some signs for which chemical substances they allegedly standardize their extract (if all that standardization talk is based on reality in the first place) that would be a step forward.
The Global Information Hub for Integrated Medicine, on the above-cited page states:
"Eurycoma longifolia is usually standardized to eurycomanone, 13alpha (21) -epoxyeurycomanone, eurycomalactone, and 14,15beta-dihydroxyklaineanone as reference markers for its organic extract whereas the more polar quassinoids and glycoproteins are used as standards for the aqueous extract."
http://content.nhiondemand.com/
moh/media/monoHerb.asp?objID=101048
&ctype=herb&mtyp=1
I've never seen a commercial product standardized to any of these chemical substances. I would not exclude the chance that any of the large chemical suppliers, e.g. Sigma Aldrich, sells a eurycoma longifolia extract standardized for eurycomanone or eurycomalactone, but they would likely only do so to chemical laboratories.
And I'm sure that in any country, no eurycoma longifolia extract standardized to any of the above-listed chemicals would be permitted to go on sale as a health supplement without first undergo the same kind of clinical trials that were required for sildenafil citrate or apomorphine.
Whole tongkat ali root, or tongkat ali extract that has been produced in a traditional manner by soaking and boiling chipped root, disposing the roots, and evaporating the water, has a known risk profile. In this form, tongkat ali has been used for centuries.
But standardizing tongkat ali extract for certain chemicals, the effect of which on humans hasn't been established in peer-reviewed clinical trials, is something else. And if the standardization is for chemicals that are given a fancy name which is not reflected in the scientific literature, it's something else again. Something of which I wouldn't want to be part.
Or, could it be, that the whole eurypeptices story, too, is just fake science?
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Copyright Serge Kreutz