Mucuna Supplements’ Levodopa Levels are Not Consistent (not surprised)

[Juliegrace]

medicalxpress.com/news/2022...

[CaseyInsights]

You are right: supplements with variation between contents and listing on the bottle, should surprise one.

Whether it is mucuna pruriens extracts - Levodopa or Magnesium or B-Complex, you need to be careful in your purchase.

The cheapest it is not always best 🌺

[park_bear]

What Consumer Labs had to say about this study:

consumerlab.com/answers/sup...

"For products that listed amounts, the study reported that "the actual quantity of levodopa was 228% to 2,186% greater than the estimated quantity" (Cohen, JAMA Neurol 2022). However, analysis of the study data by ConsumerLab found this to be somewhat misleading, as the researchers treated each product as if it were an M. pruriens bean powder and not an extract and they expected only 3.9% of the listed amount to be L-dopa despite many labels stating much higher concentrations. ConsumerLab calculated that the six products that listed both an amount of extract and a percent L-dopa actually provided 26%, 88%, 94%, 99%, 129%, and 142% of their expected amounts of L-dopa. For example, the product providing the most L-dopa per serving (which is likely to have been DopaBoost from Designs for Health, which includes additional ingredients) claimed to provide 425 mg of M. pruriens extract standardized to "60% levodopa," which means it should have provided 255 mg of L-dopa, and it was found to provide close to this amount — 241 mg, or 94% of claim"

In other words, the cited study misrepresented the data.

[kevowpd in reply to park_bear]

In other words, the cited study misrepresented the data.

Perhaps, but also..

the six products that listed both an amount of extract and a percent L-dopa actually provided 26%, 88%, 94%, 99%, 129%, and 142% of their expected amounts of L-dopa.

I wouldn't call any of the bolded values 'accurate' in light of the 'expected amounts'. Would you?

4 out of the 6 noted above were materially misrepresented by the label. Two of them were dramatically misrepresented. Not exactly encouraging, is it?

[park_bear in reply to kevowpd]

Fair enough. From the table posted below by Lehar lover is apparent that these supplements are from the dietary "fat burner" and muscle "enhancement" vendors. These are the seamy underside of the supplement business and it would be just fine with me if they were all run out of business.

[johntPM]

Does anyone know of similar work on medical levodopa? In other words, if I take a pill that says it contains 100 mg levodopa, does it contain 100 mg or 99 mg or 109 mg or whatever?

[LeharLover62]

Here’s the chart from this study:

jamanetwork.com/journals/ja...

unfortunately I don’t see brand info, but it might definitely explain why we’ve had so much difficulty with dosing the last couple of months.

Tests of different Macuna brands