We compare the most common brands of Shilajit (or mumiyo) manufacturers in this article and compare how safe and effective these are. A lot of hype has been generated around Shilajit being a miracle substance especially for men as it increases testosterone. Maybe you have even come across ecstatic “testimonials” that claim that people are more energised minutes after taking it. Unfortunately from a scientific perspective it is pretty safe to say that this is the placebo effect. In all studies Shilajit takes months to create detectable effects, which is not surprising given how it works in the body.
Table of Contents
- Function and Effect of Shilajit
- Shilajit powder vs resin vs drops
- What to look at when buying Shilajit
- Best Shilajit Supplement List 2022
- Our Recommendation
Jump directly to the product comparison.
Function and Effect of Shilajit
Out current scientific understanding on the molecular mechanisms of Shilajit is limited. There is a growing body of work on the efficiency of some key compounds found in natural shilajit resin: Fulvic Acid, Dibenzo-α-Pyrones. Minerals in Shilajit on the other hand are present in very low concentrations. Sometimes 10-100 times lower than would be dietary relevant. There is no clear picture how and what they contribute to the efficacy of this resin.
Fulvic Acid
Compared to Shilajit, even less clinical research can be found on fulvic acid. Cell culture and animal studies however are indicative of its positive effects. The case for this substance is ambiguous though, while some studies claim benefits, others find that it has negative effects. A fairly recent review [Winkler 2018] found that the inconsistencies in effects is due to dosage and extraction process. Overall however they note:
Fulvic Acid (FvA) can act as an immune modulator, influence the redox state, and potentially affect gut health. FvA is shown to decrease proinflammatory markers but also activate the immune system to kill bacteria. It is shown to reduce oxidative stress and even induce apoptosis in hepatic cancer lines. FvA is shown to also influence the microbiome and possibly improve gut function.
from [Winkler 2018]
Dibenzo α Pyrones (DBPs or DAPs)
This hard to pronounce chemical compound is known to be involved in the energy metabolism of your cells. It works in conjunction with coenzyme Q10 (CoQ10) to “charge” the cell with fuel. Creating a molecule called ATP, the fuel every cell in your body uses when doing most of its activities. Brain, muscle and any other cells alike use ATP for their metabolism). [Bhattacharyya 2009a]
Giving DBP in conjunction with CoQ10 rescued the energy levels of mice after rigorous swimming exercises. The effect is measured by seeing the levels of ATP (your cell’s fuel) increase.
These results suggest a mechanism for DBPs and shilajit to support the energy synthesizing ability of mitochondria and provide an explanation for the reported beneficial effects with respect to physical performance and relief from fatigue.
From [Stohs 2013]
However there is too little research to make any definitive statements on DBPs effect. Consequentially you will not find it on lab reports regarding Shilajit.
Minerals in Shilajit Resin
This part of Shilajit varies very strongly by the origin of the Shilajit [Al-Salman 2020] and probably even by the actual place of extraction. Minerals make up about 10-15% of the total content. Out of this 90% are Magnesium, Calcium and Potassium. The rest are trace elements in exceedingly small quantities.
This sounds absolutely great and almost every advertisement will emphasise this. However, the amounts found in a typical daily dose of 500mg Shilajit as used by most studies are 100s of times lower than what the dietary recommendations are. Here are some examples from the mineral contents reported by [Al-Salman 2020], [Stohs 2013]:
Approximate contents of minerals in a 500mg Shilajit dose vs daily requirements:
| Substance | contents in 500mg Shilajit | Daily Requirement |
|---|---|---|
| Zinc | ~0.0125mg | 8 – 11mg |
| Copper | ~0.005mg | 0.9 – 1.3mg |
| Iron | ~0.075mg | 8 – 15mg |
| Calcium | ~25mg | 1000 – 1200mg |
| Potassium | ~20mg | 3000mg |
| Magnesium | ~2.25mg | 400mg |
The picture is no different for other minerals and metals like Selenium for example. We can safely conclude that Shilajit is not a dietary source of minerals.
Contamination with heavy metals
While all metals can be toxic in high enough concentrations heavy metals (Lead, Cadmium, Arsenic, Mercury) are a special case. Government organisations help maintain safe limits of exposure in supplements and food alike.
Therefore it is important to look for a USDA approved product (or an equivalent if you don’t live in the US) and ideally a lab test that proves the absence or low concentrations of these heavy metals.
Shilajit powder vs resin vs drops
Shilajit comes in three different forms: as drops, as a thick tar-like resin and as a powder. The powder is often conveniently packaged in pill form. Most studies around the benefits of Shilajit are made on PrimaVie Shilajit capsules, which you can not buy directly. Some manufacturers however will buy in wholesale and resell PrimaVie Shilajit under their own brand. We have compiled a category of three such manufacturers below.
The only difference between the different forms of Shilajit is the amount of water or humidity that it contains. While a powder has close to none, a resin will have more and the liquid form even more still. Below is an image of the author holding a piece of very solid Shilajit from an Ayurvedic shop in Toronto.
One aspect is however that with prolonged heat exposure during the drying process some of the chemical compounds may change or break down. In Ayurveda therefore the best way to do Shilajit is not to boil it, but to let it evaporate in the sun under lower temperatures. Some manufacturers will not tell you how exactly (i.e. under which temperature) the Shilajit is produced. Therefore logically the powder may be slightly more processed than the resin, which would only matter if processing is done under high temperatures. To our knowledge, no studies on the comparison of powder vs resin composition and whether or not it matters for the efficacy of Shilajit exist.
All three forms of Shilajit are essentially the same with a difference in humidity. If you don’t like the taste, buy the pills (dried and powdered sSilajit). If you are curious about this substance and enjoy the tar like bitterness of it, that somewhat resembles whiskey, go with the resin. The liquid resin can get messy when you fly and the container is exposed to pressure change, which does not happen with the powder.
What to look at when buying Shilajit
When buying a natural product it is almost impossible to know anything about the compounds therein without proper lab testing. The lab test however will usually only measure things that are harmful to your health, not the beneficial ones (as we only have a hint of why Shilajit works). Given that Shilajit is a natural substance with a very high variability in contents and some manufacturers will even mix different sources (i.e. Altai and Himalayan mountains) it is close to impossible to really have 100% consistency.
There are however a few things you should look out for.
Has the product been recently lab tested for heavy metals?
Generally almost every product at least claims to have been tested for heavy metals. The presence of a test you can download gives you confidence that the product has actually been tested.
Is the lab an independent, real lab?
Simply google the name of the lab and look whether or not it is real. Some manufacturers will make their own test to save money.
Does the report state fulvic acid contents?
The case with fulvic acid testing is difficult. Fulvic Acids are a member of the family of humic substances(HS). They a very broad class of compounds that are further classified by looking what is water soluble and what isn’t and the weight of the molucules. The main constituents of Shilajit are humic substances: humins and humic and fulvic acid [Carrasco-Gallardo 2012].
Different ways have been proposed to test for fulvic acid all being imprecise. One study reported a content of 0.96% while other sources have measured up to 60%. Only in 2018 a new test for fulvic acid got the ISO approval, the so called LAMAR test. So far we have only found a single product that does the testing for fulvic acid using this method: Integrity Extracts Shilajit and it measured ~15%.
Some manufacturers will “standardise” their Shilajit to 5% or 10% fulvic acid. As Shilajit is a natural product this can only be done by adding fulvic acid directly, which in our opinion defies the purpose of a “natural remedy”.
Has the product/supplement been approved by an independent agency (like the USDA, FDA)?
The USDA logo does not guarantee that the product has been tested for heavy metals. It offers some protection when it comes to production standards and generally shows that some safety scrutiny has been done.
Do you trust the brand?
Just browsing to create the list you will find a lot of brands that seem like they have been created out of thin air to sell Shilajit. A practice that is quite common, since it is easy to buy bulk and rebrand however you like – brands and emotions after all influence most purchase decisions, not the content. Use your best judgement to see if someone is making a quick buck or is actually creating a business that cares about their product and customers. Look how long the brand has been in business as well.
Traditionally in Ayurveda Shilajit is classified through various tests like how it dissolves in water, what kind of ash it leaves after burning etc. [Ojha 2021].
This instagram blogger has made a really nice video showing the process:
Best Shilajit Supplement List 2022
This list is made in the order from most to least expensive, which by far does not correlate with the brands we would recommend. Efficacy has been proven for all the PrimaVie Shilajits, since it is the same product used in studies. This however does not mean that the other products are not better for you, the environment and the people in the Himalayas or Altai Mountains doing the work of harvesting and processing.
Unfortunately there is no better way to put it, but look at the brands and make your own decision which brand you choose to trust.
Lotus Blooming Herbs
This brand is probably the most premium on the market. The founders claim it to be the purest and most traditionally made gold Shilajit. To our liking there is too much fear based communication around the brand (e.g. “only 1% of the Shilajit out there is real”). The testing, sourcing and aspirations of the company seem right to us, the high price though makes it less appealing.
- Price: 6$ / g
- Heavy Metal Tested: yes
- Source: Himalayas
Pürblack
While this brand has all the necessary lab tests it also has a patent for purifying the shilajit. Which ensures that it is never strongly heated and does not change its composition as a result of processing. Both of these are great and make pürblack Shilajit a great product.
However, this brand wins the award for the most ridiculous communication – their video shows a steam train, the first airplane, rockets flying to the moon and runners winning olympics all to say “Shilajit was always part of it”. It continues to make claims how your pain levels will go down by X, regeneration will speed up by Y and so on. (We assume that the claim about pain reduction goes to a study on moderately arthritic dogs [Lawley 2013]). And of course they patented their spoon to dissolve the Shilajit. If you don’t mind supporting this type of communication, you will get a great, safe product at the higher end of the price spectrum.
- Price: 3.11$ / g
- Heavy Metal Tested: yes
- Source: Mixture of sources
Pure Indian Foods – Best Shilajit Ever
A brand of Himalayan Shilajit packaged in the US and imported from India. While the lab test is readily available it is strange that it is signed by the “Sandeep Agarwal the QA Manager”, while the about page identifies him as the CEO and founder. The company is a fifth generation Indian business that does not specialise on Shilajit but also produces many other products like groceries, spices, ghee and beauty supplies.
- Price: 2.33$ / g
- Heavy Metal Tested: yes, but not in an independent lab
- Source: Himalayas
Pure Himalayan Shilajit
This brand offers Shilajit in all shapes and forms, as drops, powder, resin or drops. While we could not find any downloadable lab test results, the website claims on many occasions that it is third party tested.
What we like about the brand is the fact that it has a lot of well researched content in its blog, especially the heavy metal article is very in-depth and clear. All of this indicates that knowledge about safety and efficacy of Shilajit is present with the brand.
- Price: 2.46$ – 1.60$ / g
- Heavy Metal Tested: yes
- Source: Either Himalaya or Altai
Chuga
This brand is new to the market (indeed the website has been showing up in Google for a little bit over a year). It has no lab tests and is advertising strongly with excited testimonials, pretty graphics, illustrations and a stand-out design. While it may all not be a red flag, we are cautious about this brand.
A fun fact is that in one of their blog posts an image of “raw Shilajit” is used, however it is the exact same image that Lotus Blooming Herbs uses to display a fifth kind of Shilajit that is: “useless animal faces”, as they state. Premium Shilajit or animal feces?
- Price: 2.53$ – 1.83$ / g
- Heavy Metal Tested: unknown
- Source: Himalayas
Integrity Extracts™ Shilajit
This Shilajit offers a solid well tested Shilajit, that according to the manufacturer is extracted “via a unique, full-spectrum water extraction process”. The brand itself guarantees the absence of any pesticides, fillers or binders.
The lab test is readily available and we like the fact that as one of the very few brands a state of the art LAMAR fulvic acid test and establish a 12.42% content of fulvic acid.
- Price: 1.29$ / g
- Heavy Metal Tested: yes
- Source: Himalayas
Siberian Treasure Shilajit
This is probably the cheapest Shilajit you will find and it is entirely sourced in the Altai mountains. While a lot of US brands will argue that the Himalayan Shilajit is the best, some will mix different sources.
Shilajit is known as Mumiyo or Rock Oil to the cultures around the Altai mountains and while there is no written scripture like in Ayurveda it is presumed that it has been used there for medicinal purposes for a long time as well. Presumably the mineral consistency of this product will differ more strongly from other Shilajits.
The grain of salt here is that the testing for heavy metals neither from Russia (where it is extracted and purified) nor the US(where it is sold) is available freely. Lab tests are only available upon request.
- Price: 0.49$ / g
- Heavy Metal Tested: test not readily available, only upon request.
- Source: Altai
PrimaVie® Shilajits
There are a number of brands that use Natreon’s PrimaVie® Shilajit but repackage it under their own brand. So it basically makes no diffence which of these brands you purchase, you always get the exact same product. PrimaVie is so popular because it has been used in almost all clinical studies on Shilajit, the efficacy, safety and dosage is therefore directly proven by using this product. (This however does not mean at all that this is the one best product, as no studies on the other brands exist.)
Natreon finances numerous studies for the efficacy of Shilajit, Ashwagandha or Amla berries and has been in business for almost 25 years. Shibnath Ghosal is one of the scientists behind Natreon and he has been studying the chemistry of Shilajit since the 80s [Ghosal 1991].
All in all you can’t go wrong by buying any of these products.
- Price: 1.04$ / g
- Heavy Metal Tested: presumably
- Source: PrimaVie® Shilajit / Himalayas
- Price: 1.33$ – 2.13$ / g
- Heavy Metal Tested: presumably
- Source: PrimaVie® Shilajit / Himalayas
- Price: 1.4$ / g
- Heavy Metal Tested: presumably
- Source: PrimaVie® Shilajit / Himalayas
Our Recommendation
As you can see there is a lot of confusion in the Shilajit market and there are different players with different strategies. On the one hand we have patents, over optimistic promises and a very emotional communication (Pürblack), on the other hand we have a strong fear based communication blaming every other brand of selling fake or even harmful stuff (Lotus Blooming Herbs). Then there are the ones that rely on an existing brand (PrimaVie) and some others that do not care about certifications all that much (Siberian Treasure, Pure Indian Foods). The market being so heated invites players (like Chuga), that might be just selling any product at a premium price.
It is impossible to make a decision that would not at least be in part emotional.
The truth is we only have a basic understanding of what the active ingredients may be, yet we lack the ability (and sometimes readiness) to properly test them in the lab. And even if we would do, Shilajit is an unfathomably complex chemical cocktail that varies from place to place.
The best advice is to go with a safe brand that readily provides you with the right lab tests like any of the PrimaVie supplements or Integrity Extracts. This Shilajit however is only offered in powder form and some sources argue that dehydrating Shilajit to a powder makes it loose some of its potency. Traditional Ayurvedic Shilajit comes as a resin. If you insist on resin our recommendation would be Pure Himalayan Shilajit.
The best option in our opinion is to see an Ayurvedic doctor and have the mixture, dosage and source be tailored by a professional with your best interests in mind.
