Shilajit

Shilajit is a dark, tar-like resin that seeps from layers of rock in high mountain ranges, above all the Himalaya and the Hindu Kush, and also the Altai, the Pamir and the Caucasus. It is neither a plant nor a mineral. It is what remains of plant matter after centuries of decomposition inside the rock: mostly humic substances, with fulvic acid as the largest fraction, carrying whatever trace minerals the surrounding geology contributed. In Russian, German, Polish and Czech the same material is called mumijo, mumie or mumio. One substance, several names, and in the European Union a food supplement rather than a medicine.

The supplier report lists 73.8% fulvic acid, 14.7% humic acid and 11.8% ash for the tested sample. These are sample results, not a specification established for every jar. Ash is the inorganic residue after ignition, not a measured dose of nutritionally available minerals. Certificate 63849 from Alex Stewart Agriculture concerns a resin sample tested in February 2026. It does not establish results for every current retail batch or any capsule formula. Current batch mapping remains unverified; the arsenic result needs clarification against the printed detection limit.

Between the rock and the jar sits a purification step, called shodhana in Ayurveda: the raw material is dissolved, the rock, sand and plant debris that do not dissolve are filtered out, and the liquid is reduced back to a resin. That removes the insoluble matter. It does not, on its own, remove dissolved metals, and raw shilajit can carry lead, arsenic, mercury and cadmium above the permissible limits. The finished batch is therefore tested, and the test is the document that separates a supplement from a story. Regulation (EU) 2023/915 sets the maximum levels for food supplements at 3.0 mg/kg for lead, 1.0 mg/kg for cadmium and 0.10 mg/kg for mercury; our certificate reports 0.44, below 0.2 and 0.03 respectively.

The human evidence is real, narrow and thin: roughly eight small trials, several on one branded extract, measuring androgen levels in men aged 45 to 55, strength retention after a fatiguing protocol in young men, bone mineral density in postmenopausal women with osteopenia, and a handful of laboratory markers. Nothing in that list is a health claim, and under Regulation (EC) 1924/2006 no health claim for shilajit is authorised in the EU. We state what each trial measured, in whom, for how long, and we stop there.

The section below is the map. What is shilajit is the definition in full. Shilajit benefits audits every human trial. Is shilajit safe covers the heavy metals question and how to read a certificate. How to take shilajit is the dose, the timing and a first month. Shilajit side effects names who should not take it. How to spot real shilajit and resin against capsules are the two buying questions, and where to buy shilajit in Europe is the last one.