If you’ve got been into bodybuilding, or lifting some serious weights, you will need to have come across a spread of supplements, promising miracle results, as powerful as anabolic steroids, minus the uncomfortable side effects. One such hyped and far talked about complement is Turkesterone.
If you search the web, the opinions are clearly divided, some claiming it to be a complement for muscle constructing and fat loss, as potent as anabolic steroids. Whereas most others, are clearly against its use, attributable to absolute lack of evidence on its effects.
Let’s see the who’s right…
Ecdysteroids are steroid hormones that control moulting (shredding) and reproduction of arthropods [invertebrate animals, divided into four major groups: insects; myriapods (including centipedes and millipedes); arachnids (including spiders,mites and scorpions);crustaceans (including slaters, prawn and crabs].
Ecdysteroids share structural similarity to testosterone and are seen because the testosterone-like compound most lively in insects. That’s the explanation that turkesterone is believed to cause the identical anabolic effects in humans, as testosterone.
Turkesterone is a complement derived from the plant Ajuga Turkestanica from the Lamiaceae family native to mountain ranges of Uzbekistan and Tajikistan in Central Asia. This plant and other types of the Ajuga species of flowers have been utilized in traditional societies as a healing tonic.
It was back in 1975 when a Russian scientist published a scientific paper on the structure of turkesterone.
Phytoecdysteroids are a family of about 200 plant steroids. They are present in about 6% of the plants in existence, although the quantity present too little for use for extraction, or show any major profit .
More than 300 different ecdysteroids have been isolated from animal and plant sources. Some of the known ones are ecdysone, ecdysterone, 20-hydroxyecdysone, Turkesterone, cyasterone, ponasterone A, viticosterone E, integristerone A etc.
The first ecdysteroid was isolated in 1954from pupae of the silkworm. This compound was named “ecdysone”, the structure of which was established only eleven years later.
In 1966, the invention of the identical molecules (phytoecdysteroids) in several plant species made them easily available in large amounts, and this allowed pharmacological studies to be initiated on mammals .
Such studies were at first undertaken within the hope of developing safer and more specific insecticides, and it was quickly shown that these molecules weren’t toxic to mammals. On the opposite hand, they displayed a wide selection of fairly helpful pharmacological effects (e.g. against diabetes or asthenia), thus providing a plausible explanation for the properties of several plant species widely utilized in traditional medicine.
However, a really significant finding of those early studies was that ecdysteroidsonce they occur in plants, occur at much higher concentrations than in insects, such that the identical amount of ecdysteroids which was isolated from 500kg of silkworm pupae could possibly be isolated from lower than 1g of an ecdysteroid-containing plant species. This relatively high accumulation facilitated the identification of further phytoecdysteroids and prompted the seek for other ecdysteroid-accumulating species within the plant world .
The distribution inside a given ecdysteroid-containing plant differs, with certain plant parts possessing higher concentrations and differing profiles than other parts. The accumulation seems to favour (protect) the parts of the plants which are necessary for the survival of the plant. For e.g. in spinach, the growing suggestions of the stem and the young leaves contain higher levels than the stem and root. Flowers and seeds also often contain high concentrations of ecdysteroids, implying a vital role in protecting these reproductive organs from predation .
Plenty of hypotheses have been recommend as to thein plants, however the favoured hypothesis, for which evidence is accumulating, is that they serve to discourage invertebrate predators by acting as feeding deterrents or endocrine disruptors on ingestion. Since ecdysteroids are non-toxic to mammals, this makes them attractive for the protection of plant crop species.
The presence of ecdysteroids has been investigated in food plants, and it has been detected in a couple of species only, e.g., spinach, quinoa, yam tubers, and in some mushrooms. As the phytochemical evaluation of traditional medicinal plants from around the globe has advanced, it has turn into apparent that a few of them may contain large amounts of ecdysteroids.This interesting association may indicate that ecdysteroids, alone or together with other plant secondary compounds (e.g., flavonoids), could have very wide therapeutic applications .
Based on the normal use of a few of these plants, dried plant parts (or, fairly, their extracts) are marketed as dietary supplements, mainly promoting their anabolic properties (in humans (bodybuilders, sportsmen), but additionally in animals (horses, dogs)). They are also getting used externally, in cosmetics, aimed toward improving skin quality/repair.
Mice studies have shown that, ecdysterone administration (subcutaneous or intravenous), at around 5mg/kg body weight, seems to give you the chance to induce protein synthesis in animal organs similar to the liver or skeletal muscle. Additionally, ecdysteroids may give you the chance to extend leucine incorporation into cells at a dose of 5mg/kg body weight (study investigated the liver). In this regard, the ecdysteroid called ‘Turkesterone’ appears to be stronger relative to other ecdysteroids studied .
However, this seems very restrictive with regard to the multiple beneficial effects already observed with animal models. The administration of the molecules was often combined with protein supplements (e.g., whey proteins) and intense physical exertion, which makes it difficult to find out the results of the ecdysteroids themselves. Ecdysteroids are currently being evaluated by WADA to possibly include them within the list of prohibited doping agents to be banned for sportsmen.
A rat study, found that, ecdysterone induces hypertrophy of muscles with a comparable and even higher potency as shown for anabolic androgenic steroids, SARMs or IGF-1. Researchers suggested that, ecdysterone ought to be considered to be included within the list of prohibited substances of the World Anti-Doping Agency.
A human studywithin the Journal of International Society of Sports Nutrition, has been done with ecdysterone, where 45 resistance trained men, got 200mg ecdysterone complement every day. No results were seen in resistance training males with reference to total and free testosterone or body composition changes compared to placebo.
Another studyinvestigated the results of ecdysterone-containing products on human sport exercise. A ten-week study of strength training of 46 young men was carried out. Different doses of ecdysterone-containing supplements were administered throughout the study to guage the performance-enhancing effect.
Significantly higher increases in muscle mass were observed in those participants that were dosed with ecdysterone. Even more relevant with respect to sports performance, significantly more pronounced increases in one-repetition bench press performance were observed. No increase in biomarkers for liver or kidney toxicity was noticed. These data underline the effectivity of an ecdysterone supplementation with respect to sports performance. The researchers strongly suggested the inclusion of ecdysterone within the list of prohibited substances.
Though as of now turkesterone or other ecdysterones aren’t on the WADA banned list.
However, the issue with the above study, as identified by many is that, the study was on ecdysterone, not Turkesterone. And the outcomes have never been replicated in any earlier or future study.
Also, in mammals, there may be rapid catabolism/elimination of ecdysteroids, which suggests that enormous amounts would need to be used with a view to maintain circulating levels above the concentration required for gene switches systems to be activated.
Therefore, with all of the collective evidence on the efficacy of Turkesterone supplements on humans, we could see that, there isn’t any quality human evidence , which could prove its advantages in terms of increase in muscle mass or fat loss.
