Formulating A Next Generation Maca Blend

When we first started looking into maca, we had one clear goal in mind, achieving high macamide levels. This made the most sense to us, because most of the bioactive research on maca is focused on the macamides. Additionally, the macamides produce effects that were very interesting to us, such as Fatty Acid Amide Hydrolase (FAAH) inhibition. This is an enzyme that normally breaks down our bodies' own cannabinoid compounds, called endocannabinoids. These endocannabinoids, such as anandamide, act directly on cannabinoid CB1 and CB2 receptors, which produces mood, pain, sleep, and even libido regulating effects. Furthermore, the macamides also inhibit the reuptake of anandamide (AEA reuptake inhibition), which results in higher levels of anandamide. The macamides themselves even bind to and activate the cannabinoid CB1 receptor. There aren’t a lot of botanicals that are allowed to be sold as supplements that have significant effects on the cannabinergic system, so when we come across one, we pay attention!

Except, this time we were so excited by the macamides, that we tunnel visioned on them a bit too much. This led to us not placing much emphasis on another very interesting class of compounds present in maca, the glucosinolates. These glucosinolates are also easily converted to a much more bioavailable class of compounds called the isothiocyanates. This conversion is mediated by an enzyme called myrosinase, which is present in maca and other related brassica species (maca is a brassica, just like broccoli, mustard, and kale!). These glucosinolates/isothiocyanates are clearly also very important to the maca experience. We discovered this in quite an eye-opening way from feedback on our subreddit. Internally, amongst the beta-testing team, everyone loved the effects of our high potency macamide extract. It felt unlike any maca we had ever tried, with the cannabinergic effects being quite apparent. This sentiment was also shared amongst users on reddit, but for a lot of redditors, our maca extract felt too different when compared to a high quality gelatinized maca (non-extracted maca). We later came to realize that was because our extract didn’t contain much glucosinolates/isothiocyanates, which arguably are the most highly expressed bioactives when maca is being consumed in gelatinized form.

So, we set out to find a high quality Peruvian maca, initially sourcing all three colors: black, yellow, and red. Once we received these powders, I really wanted to try to see if there truly were any difference between the effects of all three gelatinized maca colors. There is a long running debate over whether or not the color of maca really matters. First of all, when you are farming maca, you can’t specifically plant only black maca, or only red maca. The way it works is that maca is planted, and then random colors pop up. There is a bit of a pattern to it though. The primary color that is expressed in a crop is yellow maca. Then comes red maca, at significantly lower occurrences than yellow maca. Last but not least is black maca, which in a field of maca is often the least expressed color. What this naturally creates is an abundance of yellow maca, with a much lower supply of red and black maca. This causes some degree of rarity with black and red maca. Naturally, things that are rarer are often viewed as being more interesting and desirable.

So there is certainly a higher demand for black maca than yellow maca. My question always was, is there really a difference between them? Scientifically speaking, there isn’t a whole lot that sets the different colors apart except for a very thin layer of anthocyanins on the outer layer of the maca root. Once you cut into the different maca colors, they are all the same exact color all the way through. However, people do sometimes seem to have differing effects with different colors, so I wanted to know for myself too.

My bioassaying protocol was as follows:

“Take 10 grams of maca powder, wait 1 hour. Take another 10 grams of maca.”

The idea here was to amplify the signal strength. It’s a technique we use in the lab too when looking for small differences in an analytical sample. By taking a higher dose, more subtle effects should be more pronounced. My idea with the two sequential doses was that within an hour I should be able to start picking out effects already. Then with the second dose right behind it, if I do start to notice very subtle effects from the initial dose, I should notice them start to jump out more and more as the second dose starts to take effect. I tried each separate color with this method, separated by 24 hours, first thing in the morning to have as blank a slate as possible. What I discovered for myself honestly didn’t really surprise me: each color basically felt the same, with some very minor nuances in the character of effects. If you gave them to me in a blinded fashion, I would absolutely not be able to tell them apart, let alone at a more normal 5 gram dose.

Out of all three, the black maca felt slightly fuller in effect, with a bit more of an energizing effect. This honestly could just be chalked up to slight batch to batch variations in overall potency, or who knows, perhaps black maca is on average a bit more potent than the rest. Either way, not a huge difference in effects, nor price for that matter, so we decided to just go for the black maca. I wish I could go into a fancy marketing spiel here about how black maca is the absolute greatest maca on the planet and nothing else compares to it, but the fact of the matter is that it’s not all that different.

What did really stand out to me in all of this testing is that none of these gelatinized maca colors felt remotely as cannabinergic as our maca extract, even in the very high 20 gram doses I was taking. This was a bit of a letdown for me, since the cannabinergic effects of our maca extract are so unique. So we decided on the most logical thing to do: why not combine the best of both worlds? We added a half dose of our maca extract to 5 grams of gelatinized Peruvian black maca. When we tested this mix, the cannabinergic magic of our maca extract was fully there, but very nicely integrated into the unique and more energizing effects of the gelatinized black maca.

Now that we’ve covered why our Peruvian Black Maca Enhanced Blend contains both a gelatinized black maca (glucosinolate/isothiocyanate source) and a maca extract (macamide source), it’s time to discuss a strange addition: horseradish. I’m sure there were some raised eyebrows at this ingredient when it first came out. It’s an odd ingredient to see in a maca product, but it’s in there for a very good reason. First of all, the combination isn’t actually all that strange, because both maca and horseradish are brassicas and contain very similar bioactives, namely the glucosinolates/isothiocyanates.

As mentioned earlier, glucosinolates are the precursors to another set of compounds called isothiocyanates. Glucosinolates all contain a bulky sugar group, which prevents them from being absorbed and utilized. Once these bulky sugar groups are removed, we end up with isothiocyanates, which are much smaller compounds that are very easily absorbed and utilized. However, this conversion requires the activity of an enzyme called myrosinase. As luck would have it, every plant that produces glucosinolates also contains the myrosinase enzyme. Not every myrosinase enzyme is the same though, and some configurations of this enzyme are much more efficient.

Through extensive lab testing, we discovered that horseradish myrosinase was one of the most efficient at turning glucosinolates into isothiocyanates. This is the primary reason we added it to our Black Maca Enhanced Blend. With the Black Maca Enhanced Blend, we wanted to assure high levels of isothiocyanate production from the available glucosinolates. However, we quickly came to the realization that the gelatinization process destroys the native myrosinase enzyme activity of maca. This is problematic since the gelatinized maca root still contains a bunch of unconverted glucosinolates.

Glucosinolates can also be converted to isothiocyanates by our gut microbiome, but it's much less efficient than myrosinase-driven conversion. So, to solve this problem, we added horseradish-derived myrosinase to make up for the lost native maca myrosinase. The trick to really making this work, though, is to mix up the Black Maca Enhanced Blend with water and then let it stand for 10 minutes. Myrosinase is also much more efficient at converting glucosinolates to isothiocyanates at neutral pH levels (water) when compared to acidic pH levels (stomach acid), so the conversion is more complete this way.

When we compared side-by-side versions of the Black Maca Enhanced Blend, we found that the version that contained horseradish was more energizing. Not by a ton, but definitely enough to be easily noticeable. Our theory worked, and a very simple addition to replace maca’s native myrosinase enzyme that is lost during gelatinization made a noticeable impact.

One of the main things that user feedback revealed to us is that most people have a much stronger energizing effect with gelatinized maca. Now that the Peruvian Black Maca Blend has been out in the world for more than a year, it’s clear that the people who try it end up obtaining the energizing maca effects they are after. On top of that, there is of course more depth of effects with the Peruvian Black Maca Blend, due to the addition of the high potency macamide extract and the horseradish.