Tongkat Ali (2026): What the Research Actually Shows

By Erin Rose Updated October 13, 2026 Sources

Tongkat ali trials are small and short, and most were paid for by, or co-written by staff of, the company that makes the extract. In trials, men with normal testosterone saw no clear change. Europe’s food safety agency said in 2021 that the safety of one extract “has not been established.”

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Ask your doctor first if you take any medicine (one small study found it cut the absorption of propranolol), or have liver, kidney or heart disease or a hormone-sensitive condition. Skip it if you are pregnant or breastfeeding: it has not been studied. Stop and see a doctor for yellow skin or eyes, dark urine or a racing heartbeat. This page is not medical advice. Buy only from brands that post lab reports for each lot: FDA records show that some unlisted products sold online held hidden prescription drugs. The safety details

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The best tongkat ali, scoredOur picks, and scores for 4 products on dose, cost, testing and label.Which tongkat ali is testedWhich products are on a public testing list, and what the brands’ own lot reports measure.What tongkat ali costs a dayEach product we score, priced for a trial day at list price.Safety and who should ask a doctorWhat Europe’s food safety agency, NIH and the case reports say.What the trials foundHormones, stress, strength and safety, one row each, with who paid.Tongkat ali vs fadogiaWhy fadogia, often sold next to it, has no human trial at all.

Does tongkat ali work? What the trials show

Left: a man in Sumatra holding a long, thin tongkat ali root taller than he is. Right: the plant’s long leaves of paired leaflets. — Tongkat ali (Eurycoma longifolia) in Sumatra: the long root, which supplements are made from, and the leaves. Photo: Dick Culbert, CC BY 2.0.

Almost every trial used one extract, Physta, made by Biotropics Malaysia. We found about 15 placebo-controlled studies in people. Six were paid for by Biotropics, and its staff co-wrote about three more. HP Ingredients, which sells LJ100, ran its LJ100 trials with Biotropics, the maker of Physta, the extract most trials used. We found no document that says the two are identical.

Here is each common claim, graded by the best human evidence we found. Our own words say little. The rows say who found what, and who paid.

Goal	Evidence	What the research shows
Hormone levels	Unclear	A 2022 review pooled 5 placebo trials in men. Results varied a lot from trial to trial, the review found signs that small trials with no effect may be missing, and its authors say more research is needed before clinical use (Leisegang 2022). A 7-day trial in 18 rugby players found no change in hormones measured in saliva (Zakaria 2023).
Stress and mood	Weak	One 4-week trial in 63 stressed adults found 16% lower cortisol in saliva and better mood scores: tension down 11%, anger 12%, confusion 15% (Talbott 2013). Biotropics Malaysia, which makes the extract, paid for it. A 24-week trial in 93 stressed adults, using the extract with multivitamins, found no significant difference from placebo (George 2018; a Biotropics employee is an author).
Muscle and strength	From the exercise	In a 6-month trial in 45 men (average age 48), knee strength rose in the two groups that did exercise training, by 14% and 17%, with or without the extract. It did not rise in the other two groups (Leitão 2021).
One trial in women 40 to 55	Unclear	A 2025 trial in 138 women compared 50 mg a day, 100 mg a day and placebo for 12 weeks. A quality-of-life score fell more at 100 mg than on placebo. The result was borderline (P = 0.049), and placebo scores fell too. A mood score did not differ by a significant amount. Vital signs and blood chemistry did not change (Muniandy 2025). Biotropics, the extract maker, sponsored it and two authors work there.
Safety in trials of up to 12 weeks	No problems on blood tests	Trials of 7 days to 12 weeks, including 109 men (Ismail 2012), 105 men (Chinnappan 2021) and 138 women (Muniandy 2025), found no clear changes in liver, kidney, blood-count or cholesterol tests. Side effects were about as common as on placebo. But Europe’s food safety agency noted that these trials “addressed only a limited number of safety endpoints” (EFSA 2021), and the trial that listed its exclusions left out people with cancer, heart disease and seizures (Chinnappan 2021).
Safety past 6 months	Not known	The longest trial ran 6 months, and its abstract does not report side effects (Leitão 2021). NIH’s LiverTox says long-term safety “has not been well documented in humans.” We found no trial past 6 months.

Tongkat ali is not a substitute for medical care. If a doctor has given you a plan for a health condition, do not swap it for a supplement. No trial we read tested it for any disease.

How long it takes

There is no timeline. The placebo trials ran from 7 days to 6 months, and each measured something different. None checked in earlier, so a long trial does not mean the extract works slowly. No trial tested how long to keep taking it.

How long the trials ran, shortest first, and what each gave. All were placebo-controlled.
Trial	Length	Dose a day	Who
Zakaria 2023	7 days	400 mg	18 rugby players
Chan 2021	2 weeks	600 mg	32 healthy young men
Talbott 2013	4 weeks	200 mg	63 stressed adults
Ismail 2012	12 weeks	300 mg	109 men, 30 to 55
Chinnappan 2021	12 weeks	100 or 200 mg	105 men, 50 to 70
Muniandy 2025	12 weeks	50 or 100 mg	138 women, 40 to 55
George 2018	24 weeks	Extract with multivitamins	93 stressed adults
Leitão 2021	6 months	200 mg	45 men, with exercise training

Best time to take tongkat ali

No trial tested time of day, whether to take it with food, or cycling it on and off. The trials gave it every day. The brands we read say to take it with or without food. One suggests morning or early afternoon, and one suggests 8 weeks on and 2 weeks off. Those are brand advice, not trial results. Pick a time you will remember.

Trouble sleeping is often named online as a side effect. No trial we read reported it. What the trials did report.

How much do the trials use?

Trials used 50 to 600 mg of extract a day. Most used 200 mg, mainly of Physta. We count 100 to 400 mg as the trial dose, where most trials sat. The highest dose, 600 mg, was given for 2 weeks (Chan 2021). Physta is standardized to 0.8% to 1.5% eurycomanone, a marker compound labs measure. So 200 mg is about 1.6 to 3 mg of eurycomanone. Eurycomanone is a marker, not a proven active ingredient.

LJ100 or Physta on the label. Physta is the extract most trials used. Double Wood LJ100’s label names LJ100. HP Ingredients, which sells LJ100, ran its LJ100 trials with Biotropics, the maker of Physta. We found no document that says the two are identical. Its label serving is 1 capsule (100 mg). We price a trial day as 2 capsules, which is the 200 mg most trials used.
A eurycomanone percentage. Nootropics Depot 2% is 2% on 200 mg, so 4 mg on the label, and its lot report measured 4.64 mg/capsule. Nootropics Depot 10% is 10% on 100 mg, so 10 mg, above the trials’ range. On October 1, 2026 we searched PubMed for tongkat ali trials and found none that says it used a 2% or 10% extract. No trial tested whether more eurycomanone changes results.
A ratio such as “200:1”. That says how much root went into the extract. It does not say how much eurycomanone you get.
Plain root powder. Momentous is 400 mg of root powder with no eurycomanone figure, so it cannot be compared with the trials, which used a standardized extract.

No trial tested 1,000 mg or more of extract a day. LiverTox says capsules of 1,000 to 1,600 mg are sold online, and that the effects of higher doses “have not been assessed in humans.” Strength varies a lot between bottles: in one lab check of 8 store-bought products, only 5 held detectable tongkat ali compounds, from 0.22 to 1.84 mg of eurycomanone a capsule (Mutschlechner 2018).

In older men

One of the larger placebo trials gave 100 mg a day, 200 mg a day or placebo to 105 men aged 50 to 70 for 12 weeks (Chinnappan 2021, paid for by Biotropics). It excluded men with prostate cancer or any cancer, heart disease, uncontrolled blood pressure or diabetes, seizures, blood disease and stomach ulcers. Older adults are also more likely to take a heart or blood pressure drug. If you do, read side effects and ask your doctor first.

Side effects and safety

In placebo trials of up to 12 weeks, blood tests showed no safety problems, and side effects were about as common as on placebo. Outside the trials, the record is less clean.

Common side effects. LiverTox lists nausea, stomach discomfort, diarrhea, headache and rash as uncommon at usual doses. It adds that long-term safety “has not been well documented in humans.”
Liver. LiverTox rates tongkat ali a “possible rare cause of clinically apparent liver injury” (score D). Its entry rests on one case report. In it, a 47-year-old man developed yellow eyes and dark urine a week after starting a new tongkat ali product. The paper argues that tongkat ali caused it (Kaliounji 2024). The product and dose are not known. LiverTox adds that unacknowledged steroid use or earlier liver disease may explain some cases like this. His liver tests had not returned to normal 20 days after he stopped. LiverTox says trials left out people with liver disease.
Heart rhythm. A 71-year-old man developed atrial flutter. His symptoms began two days after he started a 668 mg capsule. It settled within a day of stopping, but he was given heart-rate drugs at the same time, so cause is not proven (Ali 2025).
Europe’s review. In 2021, Europe’s food safety agency (EFSA) reviewed a standardized water extract from Biotropics, with the same eurycomanone range as the trial extract. It said lab tests showed the extract has the potential to damage DNA, and that its safety “has not been established.” In rats, the effect was in the stomach and duodenum at a very high dose.
Other medicines. In one small single-dose study of 14 healthy men, tongkat ali cut the absorption of propranolol, a heart and blood pressure drug, by about 29% (Salman 2010). We found no human data on blood thinners, diabetes drugs, thyroid drugs, antidepressants or hormone therapy, so we cannot say they are safe with it.
Hormone-sensitive conditions. Tongkat ali acts on hormones. Talk to your doctor first if you have a prostate or other hormone-sensitive condition. No trial studied people with prostate or breast cancer.
Pregnancy, breastfeeding, children. Not studied. Skip it. Europe’s review covered adults only, and not pregnant or nursing women.
Hidden drugs. FDA recall records list tongkat-labelled products that held hidden prescription drugs, and Health Canada pulled a licensed product for the same reason in 2018.
Reports to FDA. Seven reports name a tongkat ali product. Four also list other products, and a report does not show cause.

Side effects: sleep trouble and mercury risk

Sleep. Trouble sleeping is often named online as a side effect. No trial we read reported it. The trials counted side effects in total. In a 12-week trial of 109 men, the extract group had 11 side effects in 11 men and the placebo group had 20 in 15 men (Ismail 2012). In a 24-week trial of 93 adults, there were 7 on the extract and 6 on placebo (George 2018). One of the 7 reports to FDA that name tongkat ali mentioned insomnia, and a report does not show cause.

Mercury and lead. Two surveys of Malaysian products from the early 2000s found too much mercury in 36 of 100 tongkat ali products and 26 of 100 “tongkat ali hitam” products (Ang 2004, 2006). A check for lead found 8 of 100 herbal products with 10 to 21 ppm, and all 8 carried tongkat ali names (Ang 2003). Those are old, from one country, and mostly unregistered products. Newer US numbers are not published. Brands that post a lot report with metals let you check your own bottle.

Stop and see a doctor if you notice yellow skin or eyes, dark urine, or a racing or irregular heartbeat. Testing tells you what is in the bottle, not whether it works. Which tongkat ali is tested.

Tongkat ali vs fadogia agrestis

Fadogia agrestis is often sold next to tongkat ali. We found no human trial of it, not one. Its evidence is three rat studies from one research group in Nigeria, published 2005 to 2009. The 2008 and 2009 papers gave rats the extract for 28 days. They reported signs of harm at the doses tested, including liver and kidney enzyme changes (Yakubu 2008, 2009). Rat results often do not carry over to people, and no one has worked out a safe human dose. Tongkat ali has human trials and an EFSA review, though both are limited. Ask a clinician before using fadogia.

How to choose tongkat ali

A named, standardized extract. The label should say which extract it is, or give a eurycomanone percent. Plain root powder has no figure you can check.
A dose near the trials. Trials used 50 to 600 mg of extract a day, and most used 200 mg. Be wary of 1,000 mg or more: no trial tested it.
Lot reports or a testing list. A public list such as Informed Sport screens for drugs banned in sport. A brand’s own lot report shows metals and sometimes eurycomanone. Match the lot number to your bottle.
Then price. Compare cost for a trial day, not the price of the bottle.

Which tongkat ali to buy

Our pick is at the top of the page. Costs are for a trial day, which means the fewest whole servings that reach the 200 mg of extract most trials used, at list price from the brand’s store, checked October 13, 2026. Amazon’s price can differ. Only one of the 4 products we score is on a public testing list (Informed Sport; list checked September 22, 2026). The table has all 4, and one more we do not score.

The 4 products we score, and one we do not. The score is out of 10 (how we score).
Product	Score	Testing	A trial day	Buy
Nootropics Depot 2%4.64 mg eurycomanone measured (100-400 mg of the trial extract holds 0.8-6.0 mg)	7.0	Its own lot reports measure eurycomanone and metals. Not on a public list.	$0.29	Buy Nootropics Depot 2% on Amazon
Momentous400 mg root powder, no eurycomanone figure	6.5	Informed Sport (screens for drugs banned in sport). Not a dose or purity check.	$0.67	Buy Momentous on Amazon
Double Wood LJ100Names LJ100 (same company family as the trial extract)	5.0	Lot report from the capsule maker’s lab; the LJ100 amount is calculated. Not on a public list.	$0.67	Buy Double Wood LJ100 on Amazon
Nootropics Depot 10%10.28 mg eurycomanone measured (100-400 mg of the trial extract holds 0.8-6.0 mg)	4.5	Its own lot reports measure eurycomanone and metals. Not on a public list.	$0.58	Buy Nootropics Depot 10% on Amazon
Double Wood 200:11,000 mg of extract plus tribulus	Not scored	Not scored, and we do not link it. It gives 1,000 mg of extract a day, above any dose tested. The lot report Double Wood posts for lot 2608907, written by its contract maker, Brand Nutraceuticals, lists lead at 2.21 mcg a serving against a limit of less than 0.5 mcg (the report).

Nootropics Depot 10% has 10 mg of eurycomanone in one capsule, above the trials’ range, so it scores lower. Nootropics Depot’s 2% lot figures match an earlier lot’s exactly. See how each one scores, compare cost a day, or see which are tested.

Questions

What does the research on tongkat ali show?

Small, short trials that mostly tested one extract, Physta, made by Biotropics Malaysia. Most were paid for by, or co-written by staff of, that company. A 2022 review pooled 5 trials in men; results varied a lot, and its authors say more research is needed before clinical use (Leisegang 2022). Trials on stress, strength and a women’s quality-of-life score were small or mixed. See the scorecard above for each one. No trial ran longer than 6 months.

How does tongkat ali compare with ashwagandha?

They are different herbs, and we found no trial that compared them or combined them. The tongkat ali trials are small and mostly paid for by one extract maker. For ashwagandha, read our ashwagandha guide.

What is the correct tongkat ali dosage?

No dose has been proven correct. Trials used 50 to 600 mg of extract a day, and most used 200 mg, mainly of Physta. That extract holds 0.8% to 1.5% eurycomanone, so 200 mg is about 1.6 to 3 mg of it. A 2% extract has 4 mg in 200 mg, and a 10% extract has 10 mg in 100 mg, which is above what the trials gave. No trial tested 1,000 mg or more a day, and LiverTox says higher doses “have not been assessed in humans.” No trial tested time of day, food or cycling.

What are tongkat ali side effects?

In placebo trials of up to 12 weeks, blood tests showed no safety problems, and side effects were about as common as on placebo. LiverTox lists nausea, stomach discomfort, diarrhea, headache and rash as uncommon. Trouble sleeping is often mentioned online, but no trial we read reported it. Outside the trials there are two case reports, one of liver injury and one of a heart-rhythm problem, and Europe’s food safety agency said in 2021 that the safety of one extract “has not been established.” See the side effects section for who should ask a doctor first.

What is known about fadogia agrestis safety?

There is no human safety data. We found no human trial of fadogia agrestis at all. Its evidence is three rat studies from one research group in Nigeria, published 2005 to 2009. The 2008 and 2009 papers reported signs of harm in the rats at the doses tested, including liver and kidney enzyme changes. Ask a clinician before using it.

Is there one timeline for how long tongkat ali takes to work?

No. The placebo trials ran from 7 days to 6 months, and each measured something different. None checked in earlier or tested how long it takes, so no trial gives a timeline.

How long were the tongkat ali stress trials?

Two trials looked at stress. One ran 4 weeks: 63 moderately stressed adults took 200 mg a day or placebo, and it measured cortisol in saliva and mood scores (Talbott 2013; paid for by Biotropics Malaysia). The other ran 24 weeks in 93 stressed adults, using the extract with multivitamins, and found no significant difference from placebo (George 2018).

What was the longest tongkat ali trial?

Six months. It was a placebo-controlled trial of 200 mg a day in 45 men, in four groups, two of them doing exercise training (Leitão 2021). Its abstract does not report side effects or liver tests, so it does not show that 6 months is safe. The next longest ran 24 weeks.

What time of day should I take tongkat ali?

No trial tested time of day, so we cannot say. Pick a time you will remember. One brand’s page suggests morning or early afternoon, but that is its advice, not a trial result. Trouble sleeping is often mentioned online, but no trial we read reported it, and 1 of the 7 reports to FDA that name tongkat ali mentioned it. Reports do not show cause.

Does taking tongkat ali in the morning change its effect on cortisol?

No trial compared morning with evening, so we cannot say time of day matters. Two trials measured cortisol in saliva, and both compared the extract with placebo, not one time of day with another. In a 4-week trial in 63 stressed adults, cortisol was lower on the extract (Talbott 2013; paid for by Biotropics Malaysia). In a 7-day trial in 18 rugby players, cortisol did not change (Zakaria 2023).

Should tongkat ali be taken with food or on an empty stomach?

No trial tested this. The brands we read say with or without food. LiverTox lists nausea and stomach discomfort as uncommon side effects, so if it upsets your stomach, tell your doctor or pharmacist.

Do I need to cycle tongkat ali, taking breaks every few weeks?

No trial tested cycling. The trials gave it every day for 1 week to 6 months. Some brands suggest cycling; one suggests 8 weeks on and 2 weeks off. That is the brand’s advice, not a trial result.

Ashwagandha guide · the best tongkat ali · third-party tested tongkat ali

How we checked this

Products. We score 4 tongkat ali products on dose, value, testing, label and recalls. Scores updated October 13, 2026. See the scores.

Cost. A trial day at the brand’s list price: the fewest whole servings that reach the dose most trials used.

Testing lists. We searched NSF/ANSI 173, NSF Certified for Sport and Informed Choice on October 13, 2026. Informed Sport and USP Verified lists checked September 22, 2026. Of the products we score, only Momentous is on one: Informed Sport.

Health facts. We read the abstract of every trial cited, the full text of five, the EFSA opinion and the NIH LiverTox chapter on October 13, 2026.

Sources

Leisegang K, et al. Medicina (Kaunas). 2022;58(8):1047. PubMed 36013514 (review of 9 studies, 5 pooled)
Talbott SM, et al. J Int Soc Sports Nutr. 2013;10(1):28. PubMed 23705671 (4-week trial, 63 adults; funded by Biotropics Malaysia)
George A, et al. Food Nutr Res. 2018;62. PubMed 30574050 (24-week trial, 93 adults, extract with multivitamins)
Leitão AE, et al. Maturitas. 2021;145:78-85. PubMed 33541567 (6-month trial, 45 men). Leitão AE, et al. Complement Ther Clin Pract. 2021;42:101301. PubMed 33445146 (strength results of the same trial)
Zakaria AZ, et al. Biol Sport. 2023;40(3):691-697. PubMed 37398958 (7-day trial, 18 rugby players)
Muniandy S, et al. World J Clin Cases. 2025;13(31):109113. PubMed 41283187 (12-week trial, 138 women; sponsored by Biotropics Malaysia)
Ismail SB, et al. Evid Based Complement Alternat Med. 2012;2012:429268. PubMed 23243445 (12-week trial, 109 men; funded by Biotropics Malaysia). Chinnappan SM, et al. Food Nutr Res. 2021;65. PubMed 34262417 (12-week trial, 105 men; funded by Biotropics Malaysia). Chan KQ, et al. Andrologia. 2021;53(4):e14001. PubMed 33559971 (2-week trial, 32 men, 600 mg; cited for dose and length only)
EFSA NDA Panel. EFSA J. 2021;19(12):e06937. PubMed 34987621 (safety opinion on a tongkat ali root extract)
NIH LiverTox: Tongkat ali (chapter dated October 18, 2024). NBK609015. Kaliounji A, et al. Cureus. 2024;16(3):e56639. PubMed 38646387 (liver case report). Ali M. Cureus. 2025;17(9):e92024. PubMed 41080360 (heart-rhythm case report)
Salman SA, et al. J Clin Pharm Ther. 2010;35(6):691-6. PubMed 21054461 (propranolol, 14 men)
Ang HH, et al. Int J Toxicol. 2004;23(1):65-71. PubMed 15162849. Ang HH, Lee KL. Food Chem Toxicol. 2006;44(8):1245-50. PubMed 16567029. Ang HH, et al. Hum Exp Toxicol. 2003;22(8):445-51. PubMed 12948085 (mercury and lead in Malaysian products)
Mutschlechner B, et al. Fitoterapia. 2018;124:188-192. PubMed 29154863 (lab check of 8 store-bought products)
FDA openFDA food and drug enforcement reports F-1515-2022 and D-0106-2018 (recalls of products labeled with tongkat ali that held undeclared prescription drugs), and FDA Import Alert 54-16. FDA CAERS adverse event reports naming tongkat ali (openFDA, data updated July 7, 2026). Health Canada advisory of March 14, 2018. Read October 13, 2026.
Yakubu MT, et al. J Ethnopharmacol. 2008;115(2):288-92. PubMed 18023305. Yakubu MT, et al. Hum Exp Toxicol. 2009;28(8):469-78. PubMed 19755438 (fadogia agrestis in rats)
Brand lot reports and prices: each brand’s own product page, read October 13, 2026. We quote no Amazon prices; Amazon is only where the buy links go. Double Wood 200:1 lot 2608907 report.

This page is for information. It is not medical advice.