Tongkat Ali in Women: The Menopause Trials

Table of Contents

1. A Herb Studied Almost Only in Men
2. Traditional Use in Southeast Asia
3. The 2025 Menopause Trial
4. What the 2025 Trial Measured and What It Left Out
5. The Combination Trial With Kacip Fatimah
6. Other Studies That Included Women
7. Female Hormones in Rat Studies
8. Pregnancy: Survey Findings and Missing Data
9. Safety Findings: Liver, Heart Rhythm and DNA
10. Contaminated and Adulterated Products
11. What Is Not Known
12. Key Research Papers
13. Connections
14. Featured Videos

A Herb Studied Almost Only in Men

The Malaysian research group that ran the 2025 menopause trial put the gap plainly in its published protocol: the benefits of the root "have been extensively studied among the male population", while "less attention has been given to its effects on women". The main questions asked about tongkat ali for two decades — does it raise testosterone, does it help erections, does it help men lift more — have no obvious counterpart in women, so women were simply not recruited.

The reason researchers turned to menopause is set out in the same protocol. Menopause can affect the overall well-being of middle-aged women, interest in herbal products for menopausal symptoms is high, and tongkat ali is used in traditional "anti-ageing" treatments for low energy, low mood, low libido and what the authors call hormonal imbalance — complaints that overlap with the ones many women report around menopause.

Two features of the women's research matter for everything below. First, almost all of it used the same kind of material: a standardised hot-water extract of the root. Second, the trials in women are few and recent, and none has yet been repeated by a separate research group. The Tongkat Ali Benefits hub sets out the much larger body of work in men.

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Traditional Use in Southeast Asia

Tongkat ali grows in the lowland forests of Indonesia, Malaysia, Vietnam, Cambodia, Myanmar, Laos and Thailand. A 2016 review of its traditional uses lists a remarkably broad folk record for the root: sexual problems, ageing, malaria and fever, anxiety, stress, aches, constipation, low energy and strength, osteoporosis and more. Other parts of the plant had their own folk uses — the leaves in washes for itching, the fruits for dysentery, the bark against worms. These are statements of tradition, collected by researchers, not findings from trials.

In the modern Malaysian market the root also reaches women through combination products that pair tongkat ali with kacip fatimah (Labisia pumila), a forest herb with its own long tradition in women's health in the region. Two of the studies on this page — the 2020 hot-flush trial and a 2021 rat safety study — tested exactly such a pairing. The tongkat ali root is also sold in Malaysia as an ingredient in coffee, and that coffee format turns up twice below: in a rat toxicity study and in a survey of pregnant women.

The tradition explains why researchers framed the women's trials around energy, mood, quality of life and "vitality" rather than around a single hormone. It does not, on its own, show that the root does any of these things.

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The 2025 Menopause Trial

This is the first randomised, placebo-controlled trial of a tongkat ali root extract on its own in women going through menopause. It was planned in public before it started: the protocol appeared in BMJ Open in November 2023 and the trial was entered on the Australian New Zealand Clinical Trials Registry (ACTRN12622001341718). The results appeared in the World Journal of Clinical Cases in November 2025.

How the trial was set up

• Who. Women aged 40 to 55 with menopausal symptoms, recruited in Malaysia. The protocol planned 150 women who scored more than 61 on the Menopause-Specific Quality of Life (MENQOL) questionnaire, which means their symptoms were already bothering them. The results paper reports 138 women randomised.
• What they took. The trial gave 50 mg or 100 mg of a standardised water extract of the root, or a placebo, for 12 weeks. The groups were double-blind: neither the women nor the researchers knew who received what.
• What was measured. The quality-of-life questionnaire and the Profile of Mood States questionnaire at the start, at week 6 and at week 12; blood chemistry, vital signs and a panel of female reproductive hormones for safety.

What it found

• Quality of life. In the 100 mg group the total quality-of-life questionnaire score fell by 33.9% from the start to week 12 (P = 0.049). On this questionnaire a lower score means fewer or milder symptoms. Two parts of the questionnaire improved: the physical domain by 36.4% (P = 0.046) and the sexual domain by 36.3% (P = 0.043).
• Mood. The total mood-disturbance score fell by 38.6% in the 100 mg group and by 30.1% in the placebo group. The difference between those two groups was not statistically significant.
• Hormones. The female reproductive hormone profile did not change significantly. The authors read this as "hormonal neutrality" — the extract did not measurably push oestrogen-related or other reproductive hormones up or down at these doses.
• Safety. No significant changes were seen in vital signs or blood chemistry over the 12 weeks.

The authors concluded that the 100 mg dose improved menopausal quality of life and mood without adverse effects, and wrote that studies with higher doses and longer durations are needed. The mood part of that conclusion goes further than their own numbers: the mood change was not significantly different from placebo. The placebo group's 30.1% fall in mood disturbance is itself a reminder of how much menopausal symptom scores move without any active treatment, which is why trials in this area need a placebo group at all.

The Stress, Cortisol and Mood article places this trial alongside the stress and cortisol studies in men and mixed groups.

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What the 2025 Trial Measured and What It Left Out

A trial is only as informative as what it reports, and here the gap between the protocol and the published summary is worth reading closely.

Planned in 2023

The protocol listed six questionnaire outcomes: mood (Profile of Mood States), quality of life (the menopause questionnaire), fatigue (Chalder Fatigue Scale), sleep quality (Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index), sexual function (Female Sexual Function Index) and pain (Brief Pain Inventory). Its secondary outcomes were a full blood analysis, urine analysis, female reproductive hormone profiling, and markers of inflammation and oxidative stress.

Reported in the 2025 summary

• Results for the total quality-of-life score and its physical and sexual domains, at 100 mg.
• Results for total mood disturbance, at 100 mg against placebo.
• A statement that vital signs, blood chemistry and reproductive hormones did not change significantly.

Not reported in the summary

• The 50 mg group. The summary gives no result for the lower dose.
• Hot flushes. The menopause questionnaire includes a hot-flush (vasomotor) domain, but the summary reports only the total, physical and sexual scores. There is no separate hot-flush result for the single-herb extract.
• The quality-of-life comparison with placebo. The 33.9% figure is described as a fall from the start of the trial. The summary does not give the placebo group's change on the same questionnaire, so a reader of the summary cannot see how large the gap between the groups was.
• Fatigue, sleep, the sexual-function index and pain. These were planned outcomes. The summary does not report them.
• Inflammation and oxidative-stress markers. Planned as secondary outcomes; not reported in the summary.
• Which hormones, and by how much. The summary states that the hormone profile did not change significantly, without listing the hormones or their values.

Some of these may appear in the full paper or in later publications. As published in the summary, the single-herb menopause evidence rests on one trial, one dose and one questionnaire total that moved, with mood not separating from placebo.

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The Combination Trial With Kacip Fatimah

Five years before the single-herb results, a 2020 trial tested a product combining standardised extracts of kacip fatimah and tongkat ali; it was published in Food & Nutrition Research. It is the only trial on this page that made hot flushes its main question.

• Design. Randomised, double-blind and placebo-controlled, over 24 weeks, in 119 healthy women aged 41 to 55 with peri-menopausal or menopausal symptoms.
• Main outcome. The change in how often and how severely hot flushes occurred, compared between the two groups.
• Hot flushes. By week 12 hot flushes had improved significantly in both the combination group and the placebo group (P < 0.01). The improvement was 65% in the combination group and 60% in the placebo group, and the difference between the groups was not significant. On its main question, the trial did not separate from placebo.
• Symptom scales. Scores on the Menopause Rating Scale and the quality-of-life questionnaire improved significantly at weeks 12 and 24 in both groups.
• Hormones. Luteinising hormone and follicle-stimulating hormone fell significantly against starting levels (P < 0.05) by weeks 12 and 24 in the combination group, with no significant change in the placebo group.
• Blood fats. Low-density lipoprotein cholesterol and triglycerides fell significantly at week 12 in the combination group, with no change in the placebo group.
• Safety. At week 24, blood counts and blood chemistry stayed within normal clinical ranges in both groups.

The authors concluded that the combination "may support reduction in hot flushes" and improvements in hormone and lipid profile. The hot-flush part of that conclusion is not what the between-group comparison showed. The hormone and lipid changes are comparisons against each woman's own starting values, not differences proven against placebo.

There is a second limit. Whatever this product did, it cannot be assigned to tongkat ali, because the women took two herbs at once. The Kacip Fatimah for Menopausal Symptoms article reads the same trial from the kacip fatimah side.

The combination trial also shows something the single-herb trial does not: a falling follicle-stimulating hormone and luteinising hormone against baseline. The 2025 single-herb trial reported no significant hormone change. Whether the difference comes from kacip fatimah, from the longer 24 weeks, or from chance is not something either trial was built to answer.

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Other Studies That Included Women

The senior pilot: 12 women, no placebo

A 2014 pilot study in Phytotherapy Research gave 400 mg of tongkat ali extract daily for 5 weeks to 13 physically active men and 12 physically active women aged 57 to 72. There was no placebo group. Total and free testosterone and handgrip strength rose significantly in both men and women. In the women, the authors attributed the rise in free testosterone to a significant fall in sex hormone-binding globulin, the blood protein that holds testosterone in an inactive form. After treatment, the women's haemoglobin, testosterone and handgrip strength were still significantly lower than the men's.

Two points stand out. The dose, 400 mg, was far above the 50 and 100 mg used in the 2025 menopause trial. And the hormone direction differs: at 400 mg in older women, testosterone rose; at 50 to 100 mg in women aged 40 to 55, the reproductive hormone profile did not change significantly. A pilot of 12 women with no comparison group cannot say which of those reflects the extract and which reflects chance, the season or the act of being studied.

The stress trial: 31 women among 63 adults

A 2013 trial in the Journal of the International Society of Sports Nutrition enrolled 63 adults — 32 men and 31 women — screened for moderate stress, and gave a standardised hot-water root extract or placebo for 4 weeks. The tongkat ali group showed significant improvements in tension (−11%), anger (−12%) and confusion (−15%), with lower saliva cortisol exposure (−16%) and higher saliva testosterone (+37%). The summary does not report men and women separately, so it gives no women-specific result.

The immune trial in Japan

A 2016 trial in Phytotherapy Research screened 126 middle-aged Japanese men and women and enrolled 84 with lower scores on an immune-vigour index. They took 200 mg a day of a standardised root water extract or rice powder as a placebo for 4 weeks; 40 in the extract group and 41 in the placebo group were analysed. At week 4 the immune-vigour score and immunological grade were significantly higher with the extract (p < 0.05), as were counts of total, naive and CD4 T cells. No severe adverse events were seen. The authors wrote that the extract enhanced immunity "in both middle-aged men and women", but the summary does not give a separate figure for women.

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Female Hormones in Rat Studies

Several studies of tongkat ali and female hormones are animal work. These results are in rats, and rat doses are far above anything given to women in the trials.

Rats with their ovaries removed

Removing a female rat's ovaries reproduces the sharp hormone drop of menopause. In a 2020 study in BMC Complementary Medicine and Therapies, 48 rats were divided into six groups of eight and given the root water extract by mouth at 100, 300 or 500 mg per kg of body weight for 8 weeks, compared with untreated and testosterone-treated groups. In the rats on 500 mg/kg, follicle-stimulating hormone fell (P < 0.001) and progesterone and oestrogen rose (P < 0.05) compared with untreated rats. The loss of uterine weight that follows ovary removal was lessened in all the extract-treated groups. Calcium, phosphate, bone-formation markers and testosterone showed rising trends that were not statistically significant. The authors suggested a use in menopause; that suggestion rests on rats.

Rats with testosterone-induced cycle problems

A 2012 study in Reproductive Biology gave young female rats testosterone injections for three weeks, which caused irregular cycles and ovaries with cystic follicles. Treated with a quassinoid-rich root extract, fewer rats showed irregular cycles and their ovaries showed less damage. The authors suggested the effect may come from "anti-estrogenic properties" of the plant's quassinoids.

Two directions at once

Read together, the rat studies point in opposite directions: one reports oestrogen rising, the other attributes its result to anti-oestrogen activity. They used different extracts — a water extract in one, a quassinoid-rich extract in the other — and different models. What they agree on is that the root's constituents can act on the female hormone system in rats. In women, the only placebo-controlled data at 50 to 100 mg reported no significant hormone change, while the combination trial reported falls in follicle-stimulating and luteinising hormone against baseline.

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Pregnancy: Survey Findings and Missing Data

No randomised trial of tongkat ali in pregnancy or breastfeeding was found in PubMed for this page. The 2025 menopause trial enrolled women aged 40 to 55. When an applicant asked the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) to approve a root extract as a novel food for use in supplements, the proposed target population was adults "except pregnant and lactating women".

A Malaysian survey of pregnant women. A 2016 cross-sectional study in Complementary Therapies in Clinical Practice questioned 447 women past 30 weeks of pregnancy at a hospital in Kedah. Overall, 85.2% had used some form of complementary or alternative medicine in pregnancy, most often traditional herbs (58.3%). Among the specific products, tongkat ali herbal coffee showed a significant association with hypertensive disorders of pregnancy (p = 0.011) and with fetal distress (p = 0.04). A survey of this kind records which products women used and what happened; it cannot show that the coffee caused either outcome, and other factors may explain the link. The authors concluded that more research is needed on the safety of these products in pregnancy.

A rat reproduction study. A 2014 study in Phytotherapy Research tested a quassinoid-rich root extract in rats across two generations. In rats, fertility and litter size increased, pregnant rats showed no toxic signs and their foetuses were normal; the no-observed-adverse-effect level was 100 mg per kg of body weight a day. The same study found a lower median lethal dose in female rats (1293 mg/kg) than in male rats (above 2000 mg/kg). These are rat results; they say nothing direct about human pregnancy.

In the same survey, use of kacip fatimah was associated with preterm labour (p = 0.04). The Kacip Fatimah page covers that herb.

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Safety Findings: Liver, Heart Rhythm and DNA

The women's trials themselves reported no significant changes in blood chemistry or vital signs over 12 and 24 weeks. Wider safety evidence comes from other sources, and none of it is specific to women.

Liver injury

A 2024 case report in Cureus describes a 47-year-old man who developed acute liver injury — yellowing of the whites of the eyes, raised liver enzymes and jaundice — shortly after starting tongkat ali, needed hospital care and improved after stopping the supplement. The authors described it as the first reported case of its kind and excluded other causes. The United States National Institutes of Health's LiverTox database notes that reports of clinically apparent liver injury attributed to tongkat ali have appeared in body builders. Yellowing of the skin or eyes, dark urine and pale stools are signs of liver injury that hospitals treat as urgent.

Heart rhythm

A 2025 case report in Cureus describes a 71-year-old man who developed a new atrial flutter, with a heart rate of 130 beats per minute, after starting tongkat ali. Other causes were ruled out, and the author judged the flutter a probable effect of the supplement on the basis of timing. A racing or irregular heartbeat with dizziness is a sign hospitals treat as urgent.

Both case reports describe men. A single case cannot prove that a supplement caused an event, and the product taken may not have contained only what its label said (see the next section).

The European food-safety assessment

In 2021 the European Food Safety Authority's panel on novel foods assessed a standardised water extract of the root proposed for use as a food supplement at up to 200 mg a day. In a laboratory chromosome test the extract gave positive results, and in a follow-up test in animals it caused DNA damage at the highest dose tested, 2,000 mg per kg of body weight, in the stomach and duodenum — the tissues it touches first. The panel concluded that the extract "has the potential to induce DNA damage, which is of concern", and that its safety "has not been established under any condition of use".

Rat toxicity studies of local products

• Tongkat ali coffee. A 2020 study in Nutrients fed a commercial tongkat ali coffee to rats. No signs of toxicity were seen and organ tissues looked normal, but kidney markers were raised in both sexes at 0.29 g per kg, and liver and blood-fat markers were raised in some groups of female rats on long-term dosing. No dose pattern was seen. The no-observed-adverse-effect level was 1 g per kg.
• Tongkat ali with kacip fatimah. A 2021 study in Pharmaceuticals gave a combined formulation of the two herbs to male and female rats for 28 days. No significant toxicity was seen at any dose, though some organs showed microscopic changes at 2000 mg per kg. The authors placed the no-observed-adverse-effect level above 500 mg per kg but not above 2000 mg per kg and called for longer studies.

Drug metabolism

In a 2015 laboratory study using human liver preparations, a methanol extract of the root weakly inhibited three drug-processing enzymes — cytochrome P450 1A2, 2A6 and 2C19 — with half-maximal inhibitory concentrations of 324.9, 797.1 and 562.9 µg/mL. These are test-tube results; no study in women has measured whether tongkat ali changes blood levels of any medicine.

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Contaminated and Adulterated Products

The trials in women used one standardised water extract made under controlled conditions. Products on open sale are a different matter, and the published record on them is long. The sibling article Product Quality, Contamination and Adulteration covers it in full; the headline findings are these.

• Mercury. A 2004 survey of 100 tongkat ali preparations in Malaysia found 36% with 0.52 to 5.30 parts per million of mercury, above the national quality requirement. Five of those were registered products, with 1.05 to 4.41 parts per million. The authors noted that the products that passed could not be assumed free of mercury because of batch-to-batch inconsistency.
• Mercury in the "black" grade. A 2006 survey of 100 tongkat ali hitam preparations found 26% with 0.53 to 2.35 parts per million, against a limit of 0.5 parts per million.
• Lead. A 2003 survey of 100 herbal preparations in Malaysia found eight (8%) with 10.64 to 20.72 parts per million of lead; all eight were sold as tongkat ali or Eurycoma products, and one was registered.
• Wrong or missing plant. A 2018 DNA-barcoding study found only 37% of tested tongkat ali products authentic and 27% adulterated. One product identified as authentic by its DNA did not contain the root's expected marker compound.
• Hidden drugs. A 2014 screening study of ten commercial Eurycoma products found that two bought over the internet matched the spectrum of sildenafil-containing medicines, suggesting a sildenafil-like drug was present.

The clean safety results of the women's trials describe one controlled extract; they do not describe a product whose contents are unknown. Mercury and lead are covered on the Mercury page. Liver injury across the whole supplement market is covered under Liver Injury from Supplements.

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What Is Not Known

• Whether the menopause result repeats. One randomised trial of the herb alone exists. No separate research group has repeated it.
• Whether it helps hot flushes. The single-herb summary reports no separate hot-flush result. The combination trial, which did make hot flushes its main question, found no significant difference from placebo.
• The right dose, if any. The menopause trials used 50 and 100 mg; the senior pilot used 400 mg; the summary of the 2025 trial reports nothing for 50 mg; and its authors call for higher doses.
• Long-term use. The longest trial in women ran 24 weeks, and that was a combination product. The single-herb trial ran 12 weeks.
• Bone. Bone markers moved only as non-significant trends, and only in rats. No study in women has measured bone density or fractures.
• Women with hormone-sensitive conditions. No trial found for this page studied women with a history of breast cancer, endometriosis, fibroids or polycystic ovary syndrome, or women on hormone therapy. The rat studies show the root's constituents can act on female hormones, in both directions.
• Pregnancy and breastfeeding. There is no trial data. The one survey found an association between tongkat ali coffee and high blood pressure in pregnancy and fetal distress that it could not show was causal.
• Interactions with medicines. Only test-tube enzyme data exist.
• What is in a given product. Surveys of open-market products have repeatedly found mercury, lead, missing plant material and hidden drugs.

The fair summary is that the women's evidence has moved from none to a little. One single-herb trial reported a better menopause quality-of-life score at 100 mg, with mood not separating from placebo and no hormone change; one combination trial missed its hot-flush endpoint. The Menopause and Hot Flashes and Night Sweats pages describe the wider evidence on menopausal symptoms. Decisions about supplements and medicines belong with a clinician.

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Key Research Papers

1. Muniandy S, Yahya HM, Shahar S, Kamisan Atan I, Mahdy ZA, Rajab NF, Mohd Rasdi HF, George A, Chinnappan SM. Effect of Eurycoma longifolia water extract (Physta(®)) on menopausal quality of life and mood states. World J Clin Cases. 2025;13(31):109113. PubMed PMID: 41283187
2. Muniandy S, Yahya HM, Shahar S, Kamisan Atan I, Mahdy ZA, Rajab NF, George A, Chinnappan SM. Effects of Eurycoma longifolia Jack standardised water extract (Physta) on well-being of perimenopausal and postmenopausal women: protocol for a randomised, double-blinded, placebo-controlled, parallel group study. BMJ Open. 2023;13(11):e073323. PubMed PMID: 37914304
3. Chinnappan SM, George A, Evans M, Anthony J. Efficacy of Labisia pumila and Eurycoma longifolia standardised extracts on hot flushes, quality of life, hormone and lipid profile of peri-menopausal and menopausal women: a randomised, placebo-controlled study. Food Nutr Res. 2020;64:3665. PubMed PMID: 33061884
4. Henkel RR, Wang R, Bassett SH, Chen T, Liu N, Zhu Y, Tambi MI. Tongkat Ali as a potential herbal supplement for physically active male and female seniors--a pilot study. Phytother Res. 2014;28(4):544-50. PubMed PMID: 23754792
5. Talbott SM, Talbott JA, George A, Pugh M. Effect of Tongkat Ali on stress hormones and psychological mood state in moderately stressed subjects. J Int Soc Sports Nutr. 2013;10(1):28. PubMed PMID: 23705671
6. George A, Suzuki N, Abas AB, Mohri K, Utsuyama M, Hirokawa K, Takara T. Immunomodulation in Middle-Aged Humans Via the Ingestion of Physta® Standardized Root Water Extract of Eurycoma longifolia Jack--A Randomized, Double-Blind, Placebo-Controlled, Parallel Study. Phytother Res. 2016;30(4):627-35. PubMed PMID: 26816234
7. M Chinnappan S, George A, Ashok G, Choudhary YK. Effect of herbal extract Eurycoma longifolia (Physta(®)) on female reproductive hormones and bone biochemical markers: an ovariectomised rat model study. BMC Complement Med Ther. 2020;20(1):31. PubMed PMID: 32024514
8. Abdulghani M, Hussin AH, Sulaiman SA, Chan KL. The ameliorative effects of Eurycoma longifolia Jack on testosterone-induced reproductive disorders in female rats. Reprod Biol. 2012;12(2):247-55. PubMed PMID: 22850474
9. Low BS, Das PK, Chan KL. Acute, reproductive toxicity and two-generation teratology studies of a standardized quassinoid-rich extract of Eurycoma longifolia Jack in Sprague-Dawley rats. Phytother Res. 2014;28(7):1022-9. PubMed PMID: 24318772
10. Yusof J, Mahdy ZA, Noor RM. Use of complementary and alternative medicine in pregnancy and its impact on obstetric outcome. Complement Ther Clin Pract. 2016;25:155-163. PubMed PMID: 27863606
11. EFSA Panel on Nutrition, Novel Foods and Food Allergens (NDA), Turck D, Bohn T, Castenmiller J, De Henauw S, Hirsch-Ernst KI, et al. Safety of Eurycoma longifolia (Tongkat Ali) root extract as a novel food pursuant to Regulation (EU) 2015/2283. EFSA J. 2021;19(12):e06937. PubMed PMID: 34987621
12. Kaliounji A, Shadid G, Saba H, Ahlawat S. A Rare Case of Tongkat Ali-Induced Liver Injury: A Case Report. Cureus. 2024;16(3):e56639. PubMed PMID: 38646387
13. Ali M. Tongkat Ali-Induced Atrial Flutter: A Probable Case. Cureus. 2025;17(9):e92024. PubMed PMID: 41080360
14. LiverTox: Clinical and Research Information on Drug-Induced Liver Injury. Tongkat Ali. Bethesda (MD): National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases; 2012-. Updated 2024 Oct 18. PubMed PMID: 39527684
15. Ahmad N, Teh BP, Halim SZ, Zolkifli NA, Ramli N, Muhammad H. Eurycoma longifolia-Infused Coffee-An Oral Toxicity Study. Nutrients. 2020;12(10):3125. PubMed PMID: 33066137
16. Teh BP, Ahmad N, Ibnu Rasid EN, Zolkifli NA, Sastu Zakaria UR, Mohamed Yusoff N, Zulkapli A, Japri N, Lee JC, Muhammad H. Herbal-Based Formulation Containing Eurycoma longifolia and Labisia pumila Aqueous Extracts: Safe for Consumption? Pharmaceuticals (Basel). 2021;14(2):142. PubMed PMID: 33579048
17. Han YM, Kim IS, Rehman SU, Choe K, Yoo HH. In Vitro Evaluation of the Effects of Eurycoma longifolia Extract on CYP-Mediated Drug Metabolism. Evid Based Complement Alternat Med. 2015;2015:631329. PubMed PMID: 26240600
18. Ang HH, Lee EL, Cheang HS. Determination of mercury by cold vapor atomic absorption spectrophotometer in Tongkat Ali preparations obtained in Malaysia. Int J Toxicol. 2004;23(1):65-71. PubMed PMID: 15162849
19. Ang HH, Lee KL. Contamination of mercury in tongkat Ali hitam herbal preparations. Food Chem Toxicol. 2006;44(8):1245-50. PubMed PMID: 16567029
20. Ang HH, Lee EL, Matsumoto K. Analysis of lead content in herbal preparations in Malaysia. Hum Exp Toxicol. 2003;22(8):445-51. PubMed PMID: 12948085
21. Abubakar BM, Salleh FM, Shamsir Omar MS, Wagiran A. Assessing product adulteration of Eurycoma longifolia (Tongkat Ali) herbal medicinal product using DNA barcoding and HPLC analysis. Pharm Biol. 2018;56(1):368-377. PubMed PMID: 30058427
22. Said MM, Gibbons S, Moffat AC, Zloh M. Rapid detection of sildenafil analogue in Eurycoma longifolia products using a new two-tier procedure of the near infrared (NIR) spectra database. Food Chem. 2014;158:296-301. PubMed PMID: 24731345
23. Rehman SU, Choe K, Yoo HH. Review on a Traditional Herbal Medicine, Eurycoma longifolia Jack (Tongkat Ali): Its Traditional Uses, Chemistry, Evidence-Based Pharmacology and Toxicology. Molecules. 2016;21(3):331. PubMed PMID: 26978330

PubMed Topic Searches

1. PubMed: Eurycoma longifolia and menopause
2. PubMed: Eurycoma longifolia in women
3. PubMed: tongkat ali with kacip fatimah
4. PubMed: tongkat ali and liver injury
5. PubMed: Eurycoma longifolia toxicity

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Connections

• Tongkat Ali Benefits — the hub, with the evidence map for every claim
• Tongkat Ali (Eurycoma longifolia) — botany, names, colour grades and traditional use
• Tongkat Ali for Stress, Cortisol and Mood — the stress and cortisol trials in men and mixed groups
• Tongkat Ali: Product Quality, Contamination and Adulteration — the full record of mercury, lead, substitution and hidden drugs
• Kacip Fatimah for Menopausal Symptoms — the partner herb in the combination trial
• Menopause — the transition itself and its symptoms
• Hot Flashes and Night Sweats — the symptom the combination trial measured
• Liver Injury from Supplements — how herbal liver injury is recognised
• Mercury Toxicity — the contaminant found most often in tongkat ali surveys

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