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.

20 ingredients

5-MTHF (Methylfolate)

Vitamins

L-5-methyltetrahydrofolate, the form of folate that actually circulates in blood. Folic acid has to pass through several enzymatic steps to get here; 5-MTHF skips them.

What it does in the body

Because it bypasses the MTHFR enzyme, methylfolate is available to the methylation cycle regardless of how efficiently that enzyme works — a common variant reduces its activity substantially.

What the research looks at

  • Homocysteine levels in carriers of MTHFR variants
  • Folate status where folic acid conversion is limited
Typical daily dose
400–1000 µg
Time to effect
4–12 weeks
Usually taken
Morning, with food

Biotin (Vitamin B7)

Vitamins In the Blueprint protocol

The vitamin most associated with hair and nails. Gut bacteria produce some of what the body uses, and deficiency in people eating normally is uncommon.

What it does in the body

Biotin is the coenzyme for carboxylase enzymes involved in fatty acid synthesis and gluconeogenesis. Keratin production depends on those pathways, which is the link to hair and nails.

What the research looks at

  • Nail thickness and brittleness
  • Hair growth where biotin status is low
  • Glucose metabolism
Typical daily dose
30–5000 µg
Time to effect
3–6 months
Usually taken
Morning, with food

Choline

Brain & focus

An essential nutrient grouped with the B vitamins although it is not one. Egg yolk and liver are the richest common sources, and most Europeans fall short of the adequate intake.

What it does in the body

Choline is the raw material for acetylcholine, the neurotransmitter of memory and muscle activation, and for phosphatidylcholine, a structural component of every cell membrane. It also donates methyl groups.

What the research looks at

  • Memory and attention
  • Fat transport out of the liver
  • Foetal brain development
Typical daily dose
400–550 mg
Time to effect
4–12 weeks
Usually taken
With food

Folate (Vitamin B9)

Vitamins In the Blueprint protocol

Folate is the form found in leafy greens and legumes; folic acid is the synthetic form used in fortification. They are not interchangeable in every respect.

What it does in the body

Folate carries single-carbon units in the methylation cycle, which the body uses to build DNA and to convert homocysteine back into methionine.

What the research looks at

  • Homocysteine levels
  • Neural tube development in pregnancy
  • Red blood cell formation
Typical daily dose
200–400 µg DFE
Time to effect
4–12 weeks
Usually taken
Morning, with food

Niacin (Vitamin B3)

Vitamins In the Blueprint protocol

Nicotinic acid, the form of B3 that causes the familiar flush — warm, red skin for twenty minutes or so, caused by prostaglandin-mediated dilation of small blood vessels.

What it does in the body

Niacin is a precursor to NAD+ and NADP, the coenzymes that carry electrons in essentially every energy-producing reaction in the cell. At pharmacological doses it also affects blood lipids.

What the research looks at

  • NAD+ levels in tissue
  • Blood lipid profile at high doses
  • Energy metabolism
Typical daily dose
16–35 mg
Time to effect
4–8 weeks
Usually taken
With food, to reduce flushing

Niacinamide (Nicotinamide)

Vitamins In the Blueprint protocol

The amide form of B3. It does not cause the flush, and it is the form used in skincare, where it appears on labels at two to ten per cent.

What it does in the body

Applied to skin, niacinamide supports ceramide synthesis in the barrier and interferes with the transfer of pigment from melanocytes to surrounding cells. Taken orally it feeds the same NAD+ pathway as niacin.

What the research looks at

  • Skin barrier function and moisture loss
  • Uneven pigmentation and redness
  • Sebum production
Typical daily dose
2–5% topically, 16 mg orally
Time to effect
4–12 weeks
Usually taken
Morning and evening on skin

Pantothenic Acid (Vitamin B5)

Vitamins In the Blueprint protocol

Named from the Greek for "from everywhere", because it turns up in almost all foods. Outright deficiency is correspondingly rare.

What it does in the body

B5 is the backbone of coenzyme A, which carries acetyl groups into the citric acid cycle and into the synthesis of fatty acids, cholesterol and steroid hormones.

What the research looks at

  • Adrenal steroid synthesis
  • Wound healing
  • Blood lipids at high doses
Typical daily dose
5–500 mg
Time to effect
4–8 weeks
Usually taken
Morning, with food

Riboflavin (Vitamin B2)

Vitamins

The vitamin that turns urine bright yellow a few hours after a B complex. That is not a problem — it is simply the surplus leaving the body.

What it does in the body

Riboflavin forms FAD and FMN, the two flavin coenzymes that carry electrons through the respiratory chain. It is also required to regenerate glutathione.

What the research looks at

  • Migraine frequency at high doses
  • Energy metabolism and fatigue
  • Homocysteine levels together with folate and B12
Typical daily dose
1.3–400 mg
Time to effect
4–12 weeks
Usually taken
Morning, with food

Spirulina

Protein

A blue-green cyanobacterium rather than an alga, grown in alkaline lakes. It is around sixty per cent protein by dry weight, which is higher than any common food.

What it does in the body

Phycocyanin, the blue pigment, is the main antioxidant and gives spirulina its colour. It also supplies iron and, notably, no usable B12 — the form it contains is a pseudo-vitamin the body cannot use.

What the research looks at

  • Blood lipids and blood pressure
  • Exercise-induced oxidative stress
  • Iron status in anaemia
Typical daily dose
3–10 g
Time to effect
4–12 weeks
Usually taken
With food

Thiamine (Vitamin B1)

Vitamins In the Blueprint protocol

The first B vitamin to be isolated, which is where the number comes from. It is water-soluble and stored only in small amounts, so intake has to be continuous.

What it does in the body

As thiamine pyrophosphate it is a cofactor for the enzymes that move pyruvate into the citric acid cycle. Without it, cells cannot extract energy from carbohydrate efficiently.

What the research looks at

  • Energy metabolism in nerve and muscle tissue
  • Cognitive function where intake is low
  • Status in people with a high alcohol intake
Typical daily dose
1.1–100 mg
Time to effect
2–6 weeks
Usually taken
Morning, with food

Tocotrienols

Vitamins

The other half of the vitamin E family, and the half normally left out. Annatto is the only common source that contains tocotrienols without any tocopherol alongside them.

What it does in the body

The unsaturated side chain lets tocotrienols move more freely within cell membranes than tocopherols can. They also inhibit HMG-CoA reductase, the enzyme statins target.

What the research looks at

  • Blood lipid profile
  • Liver fat
  • Bone metabolism
Typical daily dose
150–300 mg
Time to effect
8–12 weeks
Usually taken
With a fat-containing meal, away from tocopherols

Vitamin A (Retinol)

Vitamins

A fat-soluble vitamin that comes in two forms: preformed retinol from animal foods such as liver and cod liver oil, and beta-carotene from plants, which the body converts with varying efficiency.

What it does in the body

Retinol is converted to retinal in the retina, where it forms the light-sensitive pigment rhodopsin, and to retinoic acid, which regulates gene expression in skin and mucous membranes.

What the research looks at

  • Night vision and eye health
  • The barrier function of skin and mucous membranes
  • Immune cell maturation
Typical daily dose
700–900 µg RAE
Time to effect
4–12 weeks
Usually taken
With a fat-containing meal

Vitamin B6 (Pyridoxine / P-5-P)

Vitamins In the Blueprint protocol

Sold either as pyridoxine hydrochloride or as pyridoxal-5-phosphate, the active coenzyme form the liver would otherwise have to make itself.

What it does in the body

B6 is a cofactor in more than a hundred enzyme reactions, including the synthesis of serotonin, dopamine and GABA, and the conversion of homocysteine to cysteine.

What the research looks at

  • Homocysteine levels together with folate and B12
  • Premenstrual symptoms
  • Neurotransmitter synthesis
Typical daily dose
1.4–25 mg
Time to effect
4–8 weeks
Usually taken
Morning, with food

Vitamin B12 (Cobalamin)

Vitamins

The only vitamin that contains a metal atom — cobalt — and the one that is genuinely absent from plant foods. Methylcobalamin and adenosylcobalamin are the two active forms; cyanocobalamin has to be converted.

What it does in the body

B12 is a cofactor in two reactions: the conversion of homocysteine to methionine, and the handling of methylmalonyl-CoA in fatty acid metabolism. Nerve myelin depends on both.

What the research looks at

  • Homocysteine and methylmalonic acid levels
  • Nerve function and sensation
  • Status on vegan and vegetarian diets
Typical daily dose
2.4 µg–1000 µg
Time to effect
4–12 weeks
Usually taken
Morning, with or without food

Vitamin C (Ascorbic Acid)

Vitamins In the Blueprint protocol

Humans are among the few mammals that cannot make their own vitamin C — a broken enzyme, shared with guinea pigs and fruit bats, is the reason it has to come from food.

What it does in the body

Ascorbate is a cofactor for the enzymes that hydroxylate collagen, which is why deficiency shows up first in connective tissue. It also regenerates vitamin E and keeps iron and copper in the right oxidation state.

What the research looks at

  • Duration of common colds
  • Collagen synthesis and skin firmness
  • Non-haem iron absorption
Typical daily dose
80–1000 mg
Time to effect
2–8 weeks
Usually taken
Split across the day

Vitamin D3 (Cholecalciferol)

Vitamins In the Blueprint protocol

Technically a hormone rather than a vitamin. Skin makes it from sunlight, but above roughly 40 degrees latitude the sun sits too low from October to March for that to work at all — which covers most of Europe.

What it does in the body

Cholecalciferol is hydroxylated in the liver and then the kidney into calcitriol, which binds a nuclear receptor present in most tissues and regulates several hundred genes, including those governing calcium absorption.

What the research looks at

  • Calcium absorption and bone density
  • Respiratory infections during winter
  • Muscle strength in older adults
Typical daily dose
1000–4000 IU
Time to effect
8–12 weeks
Usually taken
With the largest meal of the day

Vitamin E (Tocopherols)

Vitamins In the Blueprint protocol

A family of eight related compounds, not one substance. Most supplements contain only alpha-tocopherol, which is the form the body retains preferentially but not the only one that matters.

What it does in the body

Vitamin E sits inside cell membranes and stops the chain reaction of lipid peroxidation — it takes the hit so the membrane fat does not. Vitamin C then regenerates it.

What the research looks at

  • Oxidation of LDL particles
  • Skin barrier and photodamage
  • Membrane stability in red blood cells
Typical daily dose
12–268 mg
Time to effect
8–12 weeks
Usually taken
With a fat-containing meal

Vitamin K1 (Phylloquinone)

Vitamins In the Blueprint protocol

The form of vitamin K found in green leaves — kale, spinach, broccoli. It is the form the liver takes up preferentially.

What it does in the body

K1 activates the clotting factors made in the liver by carboxylating specific glutamate residues. Little of it reaches tissue outside the liver.

What the research looks at

  • Blood coagulation
  • Bone mineral density
Typical daily dose
75–120 µg
Time to effect
4–8 weeks
Usually taken
With a fat-containing meal

Vitamin K2 (MK-4)

Vitamins In the Blueprint protocol

A short-chain menaquinone found in butter, egg yolk and organ meat. The body can also convert some K1 into MK-4 itself.

What it does in the body

MK-4 activates osteocalcin in bone and matrix Gla protein in arterial walls — the proteins that direct calcium into the skeleton rather than into soft tissue. Its half-life in blood is only a few hours.

What the research looks at

  • Bone density and fracture rate
  • Arterial calcification
Typical daily dose
45 mg in trials, 100–1500 µg typically
Time to effect
12 weeks or more
Usually taken
Split across the day, with food

Vitamin K2 (MK-7)

Vitamins In the Blueprint protocol

The long-chain menaquinone produced by bacterial fermentation — natto, the Japanese fermented soybean dish, contains more of it than anything else people eat.

What it does in the body

Same carboxylation reactions as MK-4, but MK-7 stays in circulation for around three days rather than a few hours, so a single daily dose keeps tissue levels steady.

What the research looks at

  • Arterial stiffness and calcification
  • Bone mineral density over several years
Typical daily dose
90–200 µg
Time to effect
12 weeks or more
Usually taken
With a fat-containing meal

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.