7 replies to this topic

[Liaxo]

I've been debating on adopting this into my stack, and have read all the threads on it here, but I haven't found any thread that entirely satisfied my curiosity. I've only seen vague posts about how it boosted some peoples energy, or maybe had a mild effect; some people even suggesting its effects were minimal if not non-existence. 

 

I'd really like to hear some experiences of people who people who have been taking this. Stuff like "I started taking X-amount per day, for X-period, and then I started noticing, [this], and [this], and [this]; I love it! I definitely don't want to go without this, before I was [so and so everyday], but now life is awesome"! 

 

Or just post if it didn't do anything for you. I notice a lot of people will say how much they love a supplement because of all the stuff they read on it, or something, but neglect to post their actual experience.... frustrating! 

[Baten]

I have bought the herb for making tea. 200g from a german company called 'Tausendkraut'. Seems pretty quality stuff. I bought it for its reported dopamine protective and even regenerative effects.

 

The effects so far: quite unnoticeable. Still didn't seem like a waste from trying though, seems pretty healthy stuff at the least. I also have some caps from iherb which I will try next, I'll report back here if they provide more of a noticeable boost?

[Liaxo]

How much do you take? And do you only take it in tea? For most herbal supplements that are on the market, people generally take doses far too low to have any significant impact. I also suspect that most of the healthy organic compounds are not going to be soluble in water and be available through the tea form. 

 

If I get some, my plan was to just put the powder (not extract) into a protein shaker cup with the rest of my powdered stack. Not everything dissolves but the suspension is easily drinkable, and I hear Jiaogulan is quite tasty. 

[Baten]

and I hear Jiaogulan is quite tasty. 

 

The Chinese reportedly drink their Jiaogulan as tea, and since it's also called "Immortality tea" for its supposed great heath benefits (could be marketing of course haha), I'd think the nutrients/organic compounds (3x the sapopin count of Ginseng, the wiki says?) would be available through tea.

 

I make my tea with a hefty amount of leaves and let it steep for a while. The resulting taste is anything but tasty honestly, but I learnt to appreciate it :P using less leaves it taste a little like licorice with a hint of seaweed... Perhaps the powdered form is tastier, heh. Where would you source it from, btw?

Edited by Baten, 09 January 2016 - 05:11 PM.

[Liaxo]

I have heard the Tea thing, however there's a difference between the Chinese whom drink it for reportedly healthy benefits and serious practitioners using it for life extension and as a Qi Tonic. If hot water alone was able to extract fat-soluble compounds, the ones that give the most health benefits in these such herbs, then wouldn't you think that people would only have to use hot water to make something like weed tea, rather than, hot milk, for instance? It's impossible to know really without a scientific analysis, so I'm just speculating. 

 

 

As far as source is concerned, pretty much 99% of it sold on the market comes from a very specific province in region in China where it's grown in the mountains, where the land is very clean. So I wouldn't be worried too much. 

[scitris]

I have many different adaptogenes at home and jiaogulan is for me personally the best.

The reason for it is not only its neuroprotection, because the most neuroprotection goes with an acutely downregulating property.

So most adaptogenes do their work only longterm.

Jiaogulan is different. It isnt only neuroprotecting, but also strengthing the dopaminergic system immediatley.

So with only 2 sips from the tea made of jiaogulan, i feel balanced, more stress-resistant, better cognitive function.

More so, more unbalanced, stressed I am before consuming the tea.

So acute effects are probable only sensed if you have issues with your dopaminergic system, cortisol, or bloodsugar, neuronal bad endegenous anti-oxidant system status.

I have big issues with my dopaminergic system, so thats the explanation I feel jiaogulan immediatly.

Jiaogulan (gynostemma pentaphyllum) seems to have two varieties that are used.

One is more sweet the other more bitter. So besides looking at a source of trust and quality, you should try both of them.

Im using the sweet one.

 

As teas/in teas Im using:

Oolong (chinese summer, more black than green)

green tea (sencha shokai)

rhodiola rosea

jiaogulan

ginger (lees tea, more as slices in my cheeks)

gotu kola (centella asiatica)

tulsi (holy basil)

cocoa

coconut oil

 

this tea-stack is targeting my dopaminergic system, cortisol, bloodsugar, acetylcholinergic system and it works.  I first tried one at a time and many didnt do it in my tea-list.

But they above did it. And im combining them. In future i will try ginseng, ginkgo as teas.

Jiaogulan gives you what you need, thats my experience. If you are stressed, light-headed, it brings you down to earth. If you are sluggish, with no motivation or even depressed, it gives you energy back. And the last thing, it also tastes really good. But how i said there are different varieties.

 

 

with best regards

, scitris

[Barfly]

How much do you take? And do you only take it in tea? For most herbal supplements that are on the market, people generally take doses far too low to have any significant impact. I also suspect that most of the healthy organic compounds are not going to be soluble in water and be available through the tea form. 

 

If I get some, my plan was to just put the powder (not extract) into a protein shaker cup with the rest of my powdered stack. Not everything dissolves but the suspension is easily drinkable, and I hear Jiaogulan is quite tasty. 

 

Well, I wouldn't discard tea form as useless so easily...

 

Personally I have tried one extract (from Planetary herbals) and felt nothing at all, good or bad, while currently I make tea from 3-4g of dried powdered leaves with consistent results: slight boost in wakefulness and energy level which helps with afternoon slump, its subtle but significant enough to make me motivated to brew tea daily and endure crappy bitter taste.

 

Also, some extracts I was considering purchasing from amazon specifically advertised that their extracts were heat treated in order to increase its usefulness plus here is an interesting abstract :

 

http://www.ncbi.nlm....pubmed/22576281

 

"Gynostemma pentaphyllum is widely used in Asian countries as a herbal medicine to treat dyslipidemia, type 2 diabetes and inflammation. An ethanol extract of G. pentaphyllum lessened obesity by activating AMP-activated protein kinase (AMPK). The levels of damulins A and B, components responsible for AMPK activation in the extract, were increased by autoclaving in a time-dependent manner. Heat-processed G. pentaphyllum extract, actiponin containing damulins A (0.93 %, w/w) and B (0.68 %, w/w), significantly stimulated fat oxidation and glucose uptake via AMPK activation in L6 myotube cells. Oral administration of actiponin to ob/ob mice for 8 weeks decreased body weight gain, liver weight, and blood cholesterol levels with AMPK activation in the soleus muscle. Our results demonstrate the beneficial effect of G. pentaphyllum on improving obesity and have elucidated the underlying molecular mechanisms."

 

Autoclaving= An autoclave is a pressure chamber used to carry out industrial processes requiring elevated temperature and pressure

 

 

Of course, using autoclave is not the same as tea brewing, it more resembles cooking in a pressure cooker but it is still an interesting food for thought on how to maximize jiaogulan benefits.

[Liaxo]

What's the harm in just directly consuming the leaves, or a suspension of the powder in a drink? Even at 10g of leaves, which is the daily dose I was going to try to work up to, is not a lot. 

 

And yes it would certainly make sense that an autoclave produces a more effective extra/tea. Not only would the higher temperature result in better solubility of the compounds, but the higher pressure would act to help free the compounds from the cellular structures. However note, that was an ethanol extract mentioned in the study, not water. Also without details on the pressure/temperature it doesn't help much. Autoclaves can go up to 200psi, where as pressure cookers operate more on a fraction of that level. 

Edited by Liaxo, 19 January 2016 - 01:14 AM.