If you’ve always loved our high potency Cistanche tubulosa extract, but have also been curious what a full-spectrum Cistanche tubulosa feels like, then we’ve got the perfect non-extracted Cistanche tubulosa option! We kept hearing reports of people having great effects with plain old Cistanche tubulosa powder, and this made us very curious. We like to explore high quality non-extracted botanicals from time to time, particularly mushrooms, but we had never tried out a non-extract of Cistanche tubulosa. Once we tried out a high quality non-extracted Cistanche tubulosa powder, we realized we had certainly been missing some bioactives in our quest to reach the highest possible acetoside and echinacoside levels. This is what eventually led us to formulate CistaMAX, which is our take on a full-spectrum, yet potent Cistanche tubulosa formulation.* One of the most important ingredients in CistaMAX is the non-extracted Cistanche tubulosa powder and thus we decided to release it as a standalone!*
Extracts are a great way to standardize bioactives, but for raw botanicals, it’s often much harder to standardize for a bioactive level because you are stuck with what nature gives you. Due to this, most raw botanicals are not standardized to a concentration of bioactives. However, if we were going to use a non-extracted Cistanche tubulosa powder, we did want to be able to standardize it to a specific quantity of acetoside and echinacoside. This proved to be quite challenging, but eventually we found a very high quality source of raw Cistanche tubulosa powder that we could standardize to a minimum of 5% echinacoside and 1% acetoside. For a raw botanical, that is very impressive!
Cistanche tubulosa is a highly revered holoparasitic plant which grows in the deserts of China, in close proximity to Tamarix trees. This is due to the fact that the Cistanche tubulosa plant grows on the roots of Tamarix trees, which is where they derive the bulk of their energy from. Cistanche tubulosa has been used for centuries for its beneficial health effects and throughout history, mostly raw Cistanche or simple water decoctions would be consumed. Only recently have we gained scientific insight into the bioactives in Cistanche tubulosa. Most of this research has focused on two compounds, acetoside (also known as verbascoside) and echinacoside. This has led to the development of extraction methodologies that are very good at concentrating acetoside and echinacoside. However, as with any extraction methodology that aims to extract high percentages of select bioactives, this is oftentimes at the expense of compounds that you are not targeting. This means that the modern extracts that are being produced are very streamlined and potent in their effects, however, they may miss a decent amount of other interesting effects!
The best way to ensure that you are getting all of the potential bioactives in a botanical is to just consume the botanical in its dried raw form. It of course has to be of high quality, otherwise the potency may be far too low. However, a high potency and high quality raw botanical can oftentimes be the best expression of what a plant has to offer. This is exactly what our raw Cistanche tubulosa achieves!* It’s of very high quality and still provides potent effects, yet captures a much wider range of bioactives!*
One of the main things that we noticed with our non-extracted Cistanche tubulosa during beta-testing, is that it is particularly mood boosting!* We didn’t have the chance to really give its strength building effects a fair trial though, but from what we’ve heard from others who have had success with raw Cistanche tubulosa, the effects should be quite noticeable, especially at higher dosage ranges.* That’s another area where non-extracted Cistanche tubulosa could really shine: high dosing experiments. While we wouldn’t really recommend going way over our recommended dosage of our high potency Cistanche tubulosa or our CistaMAX, it’s ok to be a bit more flexible with the non-extracted Cistanche tubulosa due to the lower concentration of the two main bioactives, acetoside and echinacoside. This would allow you to easily experiment with dosing multiple times a day. For example, one dose with every meal of the day.
Since our non-extracted Cistanche tubulosa is still standardized to a very respectable concentration of acetoside and echinacoside, it will provide all of the benefits of our high potency Cistanche tubulosa extract.* This means an upregulation of steroidogenic enzymes which can lead to increased testosterone synthesis, an uptick in growth hormone levels, enhanced gut health and a mood boosting effect.* These effects will of course present themselves with less intensity (depending on the dose!) when compared to our high potency Cistanche tubulosa extract, but the effects will also be a bit more gentle and full-spectrum in nature, which many people may appreciate!*
Another interesting application of the non-extracted Cistanche tubulosa would be to stack it together with our high potency Cistanche tubulosa. This is similar to what we did with CistaMAX, and allows you to add a more full-spectrum Cistanche tubulosa in with a high potency extract in order to achieve a more well rounded effects profile.* This strategy would of course also further boost the effects of the high potency Cistanche tubulosa by adding more acetoside and echinacoside to the mix!*
Testosterone Stack: Cistanche tubulosa + Tongkat Ali Extract Capsules
Since we released our high potency Cistanche, many of you have begun stacking it together with our high potency Tongkat ali extract. Since we have a non-extracted Cistanche tubulosa now, we felt that it would make for a great stack together with our much more full spectrum tongkat ali 2% eurycomanone extract. The two together make for a great stack for supporting testosterone levels and mood!*
Vitality Stack: Cistanche tubulosa + Horny Goat Weed Capsules
Cistanche tubulosa also has pleasant effects on vitality and libido, however, it doesn’t do a whole lot for the blood flow department. For this, we really like horny goat weed and we find that the more full spectrum, lower potency extract has some unique mood boosting properties! Stacked together, the two produce an excellent mood boost with plenty of vigor for the bedroom!*
Gut Stack: Cistanche tubulosa + EpiCor® Capsules
Cistanche tubulosa promotes the ability of our gut microbes to convert dietary starches and fibers into short chain fatty acids (SCFA). These SCFAs have lots of health benefits and seem to underlie the majority of Cistanche tubulosa’s ability to boost mood. Since non-extracted Cistanche tubulosa also contains fibers and starches, this could help enhance the SCFA promoting effects. Pair this together with another pre-biotic like supplement, Epicor, and you’ve got a great gut health promoting stack!*
As a dietary supplement, take one capsule of Cistanche tubulosa daily.
To gain more insight, see the Cistanche tubulosa reviews and experiences below.
Nootropics Depot offers 60ct. or 180ct. jars of high-quality Cistanche tubulosa. Nootropics Depot’s Cistanche tubulosa has been lab-tested and verified for both product purity and identity.
| *Attention: These statements have not been evaluated by the Food and Drug Administration. This product is not intended to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any disease. |
