Update: Sept 3rd, 2021. From what I can see this project has been abandoned by its creator. Unfortunately I cannot do anything about that or continue their developement because they have the patent on it. I do not know why the project was stopped. Maybe because the results were not all that impressive.
Tomatidine is a naturally occurring steroidal alkaloid that, according to research, can be anabolic and stimulate muscle protein synthesis. It is patented by the University of Iowa Research Foundation. However, supplement companies are starting to come out with tomatidine supplements already. Thus I need to jump on the ball and tell everyone the truth before the scam grows even larger.
It all started with Ursolic Acid. Some good and exciting research came out how something found in mainly apple peels, called ursolic acid, can build muscle mass. I investigated and wrote my opinion about ursolic acid supplements here. A bunch of supplement companies came out with ursolic acid supplements. However I wrote that I thought most did not contain ursolic acid from apple peels. Instead most contained synthetic ursolic acid from China under the name rosemary extract. As a result, if you took ursolic acid you were probably disappointed with the results. To make matters worse, the recommend dosages of many of these early ursolic acid supplements were not correct. I felt the dosages were way to low. I based my theory on the research done here. The end result was that ursolic acids supplements never took off even though researched proved that it is a muscle building substance. However, similar to my thoughts about low quality and bogus tribulus supplements that dominate the market, and consequently give them a “failing grade” by most users, I feel ursolic acid falls victim as well. Therefore I decided to make my own ursolic acid supplement in hopes that I could make one that actually yielded positive results.
Instead of using some shitty Chinese ursolic acid, made by some supplement company that was simply “in it” to make a quick buck off the people who were anxious to try it and just created a garbage ursolic acid supplement, instead I made my own. I actually used apple peel powder containing about 4% ursolic acid for about 1 month. I did have positive results. And as of right now I am developing an ursolic acid supplement from apple peels. During this R & D process is when I came across the extract from green tomatoes.
In my research on ursolic acid I came across something called tomatidine. It is a steroidal alkaloid that is found in green tomatoes. I started to investigate it and came across several interesting things.
- It is patented. PATENTED!! That comes across to me very interesting. The University of Iowa, (the inventors) went out and patented it for several things. I suggest clicking on the link and reading the patent, it is very interesting. The patent covers the use of it for:
- the promotion of muscle hypertrophy
- decrease adiposity
- inhibit muscle atrophy
- There are supplement companies selling tomatidine supplements already. So far I only found two, and in my opinion they are both scams. Why? Because as stated above it is a patented ingredient. And secondly I searched and searched and not one single company makes tomatidine. However this could mean that these two supplement companies selling tomatidine supplements are buying synthetic out of China. Which I highly doubt they are. Most likely there is no tomatidine in these products whatsoever, so for now I recommend not buying any tomatidine supplements.
- There are several articles from the University of Iowa about it. I found this one to be the best.
- The researchers from the University of Iowa think that it is much more potent than ursolic acid, even though ursolic acid still builds muscle.
- The researchers from the University of Iowa were so compelled by it that they formed a company dedicated to further the development of ursolic acid and tomatidine called. http://www.emmyon.com/
Can you believe what the patent covers? Here is a part of it.
Are you putting this all together? This is serious stuff right here. This only the second time I’ve seen a company in the last few years, be this dedicated to creating a natural compound that could be a natural steroid replacer. The researchers went as far as to patented tomatidine.
That being said you can now see why I feel the current tomatidine supplements that are being sold today are a scam. The only way they would not be a scam would be if they had licensed tomatidine from the University of Iowa. Which I highly doubt that the University of Iowa is going to let some small time supplement company jeopardize their entire years worth of research. In addition, the tomatidine supplements being sold today, I feel, do not contain any natural tomatidine. The University of Iowa is not producing any tomatidine to be commercially available as far as my knowledge goes. So like I said before, how are these supplement companies claiming to have tomatidine in their supplements? I call bullshit, they either do not contain any tomatidine at all or they purchased synthetic tomatidine from China. Regardless if they got it from China, then they are directly violating the patent.
Finally, I am seeking to find a green tomato powder, that has naturally occurring tomatidine. I believe, and I’ll ask my lawyers on this one, as long as I do not market it as a tomatidine supplement and /or muscle builder I will not be violating any patents. You cannot patent a green tomato, nor a green tomato powder. That would be like trying to patent a food.
In conclusion, these two compounds have some really, really good research behind them when it comes to building muscle mass. I feel the supplements being used today dealing with these two compounds are utter garbage. If you buy them, 1) you’re a sucker and 2) they wont work. It takes a company like mine to produce a quality supplement and /or naturally occurring powders like I did with fertile egg yolk powder. And quite frankly, the fertile egg yolk powder has been shown to reduce myostatin in the body. I will be working on developing these two “food” powders, in that they have naturally occurring steroidal alkaloids. This is no easy task. But I might be able to get it done. In the mean time, again, do not buy any of these supplements. Instead get yourself a good protein like my Peptopro.
Rest assured, you can be sure that I am going to start a tomato farm in NJ and start making my own natural steroid replacers. New Jersey is the best place to grow tomatoes!
Alex Rogers is a supplement manufacturing expert. He has been formulating, consulting, & manufacturing dietary supplements since 1998. Alex invented protein customization in 1998 & was the first company to allow consumers to create their own protein blends. He helped create the first supplement to contain natural follistatin, invented whey protein with egg lecithin, & recently imported the world’s first 100% hydrolyzed whey.
