Ingredients

What is actually in the products

Our complete ingredient catalogue. Search for an ingredient or filter by category to read what each one is, what it does in the body and what the research looks at. Every entry links to the studies on PubMed and to the products in our range that contain it.

14 ingredients

Aloe Vera (inner leaf)

Gut & digestion

The clear gel from the inner leaf, distinct from the yellow latex just under the skin — that latex is a stimulant laxative and is filtered out of quality preparations.

What it does in the body

The gel contains acemannan and other polysaccharides that form a film over mucous membranes. Applied to skin it works the same way, holding water at the surface.

What the research looks at

  • Symptoms of irritable bowel
  • Wound and burn healing on skin
  • Gastric mucosal comfort
Typical daily dose
100–200 mg inner leaf extract
Time to effect
2–8 weeks
Usually taken
Between meals

Betaine HCl

Gut & digestion

A source of hydrochloric acid in capsule form. Stomach acid production falls with age and with long-term acid-suppressing medication.

What it does in the body

Betaine HCl lowers gastric pH, which is what activates pepsin and what releases minerals such as iron, zinc, calcium and B12 from the food matrix so they can be absorbed further down.

What the research looks at

  • Gastric pH after ingestion
  • Protein digestion and mineral absorption
  • Absorption of drugs that require an acidic stomach
Typical daily dose
200–650 mg per meal
Time to effect
Same meal
Usually taken
Mid-meal, never on an empty stomach

Binders (zeolite, charcoal, chitosan)

Liver & detox

Not nutrients but adsorbents: porous materials that bind compounds in the gut so they leave with stool rather than being reabsorbed.

What it does in the body

Each material has a different affinity — activated charcoal is broad and non-selective, zeolite has a crystalline cage structure, chitosan binds fats. Because they are non-selective they also bind medication and nutrients.

What the research looks at

  • Adsorption capacity for specific compounds
  • Enterohepatic recirculation
  • Interaction with medicines taken at the same time
Typical daily dose
1–2 g
Time to effect
Same day
Usually taken
Away from food, medicine and supplements

Bitter Herbs (gentian, dandelion, artichoke)

Gut & digestion

A traditional European category rather than a single substance: gentian root, dandelion, artichoke leaf and wormwood, taken before a meal. The point is the bitterness itself.

What it does in the body

Bitter compounds activate taste receptors on the tongue and further down the gut, which triggers the release of saliva, gastric acid, bile and digestive enzymes before food arrives.

What the research looks at

  • Bile flow and fat digestion
  • Feelings of fullness and bloating after meals
  • Appetite regulation
Typical daily dose
A few drops to 1 ml
Time to effect
Minutes
Usually taken
10–15 minutes before a meal

Bone Broth Protein

Protein

Protein extracted by simmering bones and connective tissue, then dried. The amino acid profile is dominated by glycine, proline and hydroxyproline rather than the branched-chain amino acids.

What it does in the body

That profile is the opposite of muscle protein's, which makes it a poor choice for hypertrophy and an interesting one for connective tissue and for the glycine-dependent pathways in the gut lining and liver.

What the research looks at

  • Glycine intake and collagen synthesis
  • Gut barrier integrity
  • Amino acid profile compared with muscle meat
Typical daily dose
15–20 g
Time to effect
8–12 weeks
Usually taken
Any time of day

Bovine Colostrum

Immunity

The first milk a cow produces after calving, collected in the window before it turns into ordinary milk. It is dense in immune factors because a newborn calf is born without any.

What it does in the body

Colostrum carries immunoglobulins, lactoferrin, and growth factors including IGF-1 and TGF-beta. These act locally in the gut rather than being absorbed intact, supporting the epithelial lining and the immune tissue beneath it.

What the research looks at

  • Intestinal permeability, including exercise-induced
  • Upper respiratory infections in athletes
  • Gut immune signalling
Typical daily dose
1–3 g
Time to effect
4–8 weeks
Usually taken
On an empty stomach, in cold water

Digestive Enzymes

Gut & digestion

Protease, amylase, lipase, lactase and cellulase, usually from fungal fermentation so that they remain active across the pH range of the whole digestive tract.

What it does in the body

They break large molecules into absorbable ones — protein into amino acids, starch into glucose, fat into fatty acids. Plant and fungal enzymes work in the stomach as well as the small intestine, unlike pancreatic ones.

What the research looks at

  • Bloating and fullness after meals
  • Protein and fat digestion
  • Lactose tolerance with added lactase
Typical daily dose
1 capsule per meal
Time to effect
Same meal
Usually taken
At the start of a meal

Ginger (Zingiber officinale)

Gut & digestion In the Blueprint protocol

The rhizome of the ginger plant. The pungency comes from gingerols, which turn into shogaols when the root is dried — a different compound profile in dried extract than in fresh root.

What it does in the body

Gingerols influence prostaglandin and leukotriene synthesis, the same enzymatic pathways involved in the body's inflammatory signalling, and ginger speeds up gastric emptying.

What the research looks at

  • Nausea, including motion sickness and pregnancy
  • Markers of inflammation
  • Muscle soreness after exercise
Typical daily dose
500–2000 mg
Time to effect
Same day for nausea
Usually taken
With food

Immunoglobulins (Serum-Derived, SBI)

Immunity

Concentrated IgG antibodies from bovine serum rather than from milk, which makes them suitable for people who cannot have dairy.

What it does in the body

The antibodies bind bacterial toxins and antigens inside the gut lumen so that they never reach the epithelium. They act like a filter in the gut, not like a drug in the bloodstream.

What the research looks at

  • Intestinal barrier integrity
  • Loose stools and bloating
  • Immune activation markers in the gut
Typical daily dose
1–5 g
Time to effect
2–8 weeks
Usually taken
On an empty stomach

Inulin (Prebiotic Fibre)

Fibre

A chain of fructose units found in chicory root, Jerusalem artichoke and onion. It is a prebiotic: food for bacteria rather than bacteria themselves.

What it does in the body

Human enzymes cannot break the bonds in inulin, so it reaches the colon intact and is fermented by bifidobacteria into short-chain fatty acids, primarily butyrate, which the colon cells use as fuel.

What the research looks at

  • Bifidobacteria counts in stool
  • Calcium absorption
  • Post-meal glucose and satiety
Typical daily dose
5–10 g
Time to effect
2–4 weeks
Usually taken
With food, increasing gradually

L-Glutamine

Gut & digestion

The most abundant free amino acid in the body. It is conditionally essential: production keeps up under normal conditions but not during severe illness, burns or trauma.

What it does in the body

Glutamine is the preferred fuel of enterocytes, the cells lining the small intestine, and of rapidly dividing immune cells. It is also a nitrogen shuttle between tissues.

What the research looks at

  • Intestinal barrier integrity
  • Immune function under heavy training load
  • Recovery in catabolic states
Typical daily dose
5–15 g
Time to effect
4–8 weeks
Usually taken
On an empty stomach

N-Acetyl-D-Glucosamine (NAG)

Gut & digestion

An amino sugar, and the building block of chitin, hyaluronic acid and the mucin layer that lines the gut. Distinct from the glucosamine sulphate sold for joints.

What it does in the body

NAG is a substrate for glycosaminoglycan synthesis, the material of both cartilage and the mucus barrier that separates gut bacteria from the epithelium underneath.

What the research looks at

  • Mucin layer thickness
  • Intestinal barrier function
  • Cartilage matrix synthesis
Typical daily dose
500–1500 mg
Time to effect
4–12 weeks
Usually taken
Between meals

Probiotics

Gut & digestion

Live bacteria, most commonly Lactobacillus and Bifidobacterium strains. Effects are strain-specific, not species-specific — two products with the same species name can behave quite differently.

What it does in the body

Probiotic strains compete with less desirable bacteria for space and substrate, produce short-chain fatty acids and lactic acid, and interact with the immune tissue in the gut wall.

What the research looks at

  • Antibiotic-associated digestive upset
  • Symptoms of irritable bowel by strain
  • Immune markers
Typical daily dose
1–50 billion CFU
Time to effect
2–8 weeks
Usually taken
With or just before food

Zinc Carnosine

Gut & digestion

A one-to-one chelate of zinc and L-carnosine, developed in Japan where it has been used for gastric complaints since the nineties.

What it does in the body

The complex is more stable in the stomach than either component alone and adheres to areas of damaged mucosa, releasing zinc slowly at the site rather than being absorbed straight away.

What the research looks at

  • Gastric mucosal integrity
  • Small intestinal permeability, including damage from NSAIDs
Typical daily dose
75 mg
Time to effect
4–8 weeks
Usually taken
Between meals

Why the form and the dose matter

Two products can name the same ingredient on the label and behave completely differently. Magnesium oxide and magnesium glycinate are both magnesium; only one of them is absorbed properly. Ethyl ester fish oil and triglyceride fish oil are both omega-3. Folic acid and methylfolate are both folate, but not for everyone.

That is the difference this page is written to make visible. Where a form matters we have given it its own entry rather than hiding it inside a general one, and the dose listed is the one used in the research — not the smallest amount a manufacturer can put on a label and still name the ingredient.

We only describe a product as third-party tested when there is documentation behind the claim. Below is what each of our brands actually documents, brand by brand.

Third-party testing

Certificates of analysis

Pick a brand to see what is actually tested and who tests it. Four of the seven publish reports you can open right here — and they publish different amounts, from a certificate for every batch down to a single lot. The other three document their testing and hand over the paperwork for a specific batch when you ask. That difference is worth knowing before you buy, so we have not smoothed it over. Every report is also linked from the product it covers.

Blueprint 24 reports published

Every batch goes to an independent accredited laboratory in the United States, which checks the contents against the label and screens for heavy metals, microbes and other contamination. Blueprint publishes the full report for every batch, and a new one follows each production run.

Supplements

Nutrition

Skincare

Haircare

Lineage Provisions 9 reports published

Samples from every batch are run on ICP-MS, LC-MS and GC-MS and screened for more than three hundred contaminants, among them heavy metals, glyphosate, pesticides and mycotoxins. The analyses are done by Light Labs, who publish a running report per product with every test result in it — not a single certificate but the whole series, with the date of the most recent test.

Supplements

Nutrition

Designs for Health 14 reports published

Raw materials are tested for identity, purity and potency at external ISO-certified laboratories and screened for heavy metals, pesticides and microbiological contamination. A supplier’s own certificate is treated as a claim to verify rather than a result to accept. Certificates are published per lot rather than for the product as a whole, so the one below covers the lot number printed on it and no other — for a different lot, ask us and we will request it.

Supplements

SALTE 1 report published

Each batch is sent to Eurofins, an independent accredited laboratory, which confirms that the sodium, potassium, magnesium and chloride in a sachet match the amounts on the packet. The published report covers five flavours in one document and is the laboratory’s own, in Swedish.

Supplements

ARMRA Testing documented

Every production run is audited by ISO/IEC-accredited third-party laboratories for heavy metals, glyphosate, other contaminants and microbiology before any of it is released for sale. ARMRA documents the programme and its certifications publicly; the report for a specific batch comes from the manufacturer on request.

Quicksilver Scientific Testing documented

Made in an NSF/ANSI 455-2 GMP-certified facility in Colorado with its own ISO/IEC 17025-accredited testing laboratory. Every batch is tested both in-house and by outside laboratories for potency and purity; the certificate for a batch comes from the manufacturer on request.

Solgar Reports on request

Solgar tests raw materials on arrival and finished products before release in its own quality laboratory, and manufactures to GMP. That is an in-house programme, not an outside verification: Solgar carries no NSF or USP certification, so we do not describe it as third-party tested. Batch documentation is available from the manufacturer on request.

Vital Nutrients Testing documented

Vital Nutrients documents a Quality Assurance Programme that engages third-party laboratories — every batch of GMO-susceptible ingredients, for example, is tested for GMO markers at an independent genetics laboratory, and even the bottles are third-party verified BPA-free. Individual lot certificates are not published; documentation for a batch comes from the manufacturer on request.

T.A. Sciences Testing documented

T.A. Sciences documents an end-to-end testing and analysis programme across sourcing, formulation and US manufacturing, and TA-65 has been determined Generally Recognized as Safe (GRAS) by an independent expert panel. That safety assessment is not batch testing, and no lot certificates are published — documentation comes from the manufacturer on request.

Why testing matters

Why does a supplement need testing at all?

Because nothing else verifies the label. A supplement is regulated as a food, not as a medicine, which means no authority checks each batch before it reaches a shelf. Testing is what turns the number on the tub into something you can look up.

What is being tested for?

Two separate things. Identity and quantity — is the ingredient present, and in the amount the label states. And contamination — heavy metals, microbes, solvent residues and traces from the packaging, which can come from the raw material, the production line or the container.

How often is the label actually wrong?

Often enough to be worth checking. Of 272 supplements implicated in liver injury in the United States, 51 per cent had contents that did not match the label (Hepatology Communications, 2019). Among 57 botanical sports supplements, 89 per cent were inaccurately labelled and 40 per cent contained none of the labelled ingredient at all (JAMA Network Open, 2023).

What can I ask you for?

The report for the batch you were sent. Where a manufacturer does not publish one, we ask them for it — tell us the product and the batch number on the tub and we will come back with what they give us, or with the fact that they would not.

The certificates are the property of the manufacturers and their laboratories, and are linked here in their original location. Blueprint’s reports may not be reused without Blueprint’s permission.

This page is general information about ingredients, not advice for you. Food supplements are not medicines and do not cure, treat or prevent disease. They do not replace a varied diet, sleep, movement or medical care. Doses and timings are those used in published research and on product labels; they are not a recommendation. If you are pregnant, breastfeeding, taking medication or living with a medical condition, talk to a doctor or pharmacist before starting anything new.