For those in Australia, buying an icariin extract supplement to benefit your health has never been easier. This guide will help you to make an educated purchase, enabling you to get the best icariin product for your Australian dollar the first time around.
The key topics covered within this buyer’s guide are as follows:
The key topics covered within this buyer’s guide are as follows:
- What separates an effective icariin product from an ineffective one?
- Which icariin product is globally rated as the best & is available to Australia?
- Are there any restrictions to buying icariin extract supplements internationally for delivery into Australia?
1. What separates an effective icariin product from an ineffective one?
Before we delve into tips on buying icariin products in Australia, there are several factors to cover on how to decipher between a good quality icariin product and a poor quality one. Here we will cover the 3 most critical factors, which will stand you in excellent stead concerning what to buy and what to simply avoid:
- Percentage/Strength: Icariin comes from the Horny Goat Weed plant, or as any budding gardener would call it; the ‘Epimedium’ plant species. Horny Goat Weed can be extracted down to various purity levels in terms of icariin content. This purity is measured as a percentage figure and Horny Goat Weed extracts can be found containing anything from as little as 10% icariin through on up to a max of 98% icariin. From this information alone, one might jump to the conclusion that 98% icariin would be the extract to go for. That, however, would be a commonly made mistake. As with virtually all herbal extracts, if they are extracted down too much, they often lose their consistency in terms of potency, directly reducing their beneficial capacity. Horny Goat Weed extract is no different, and once extracts reach the 70% icariin mark or above, they become too stripped of their composition, resulting in a significant lack of reliability in terms of effectiveness. It is, therefore, a standard recommendation that when buying icariin products you cut-off after the standardized 60% icariin mark.
- Product Ingredients: When looking at which icariin product to buy, always make sure that the supplement is 100% icariin-focused. What this refers to is the fact that many products are labelled as “icariin” or “Horny Goat Weed Extract”, but then when you dig deeper it becomes clear that the product only contains a negligible amount of actual Horny Goat Weed extract, thus icariin components. You’ll find many products that have 3 or more other plant extracts mixed in with the Horny Goat Weed extract, therefore the focus of icariin and the benefits in which icariin provides become diluted.
- Icariin vs Icariins: When you are checking the stated icariin percentage of any Horny Goat Weed extract product, make sure to maintain a watchful eye for the word “icariins” and if you do see that word on the product contents information, then avoid at all costs. Icariins may simply appear to be the plural form of the word icariin, however, that’s not actually the case. Icariins is an entirely different quality of extract in terms of potency when compared to that of icariin. The stated percentage of “icariins” does not actually represent the percentage of pure icariin components, as would be the case if the product contained straight “icariin”. Instead, a percentage of icariins is basically the percentage of the ‘plant matter’ in the product that contains some traces of icariin. This plant matter that contains some traces icariin, may only contain 10% icariin (even less than 10% in some cases). So for example; you may have a 50% icariins rated product, whereby 50% of the plant matter used contains traces of icariin equating to the strength of just 10%, so products using icariins are virtually always a huge letdown. To reinforce this rule, Horny Goat Weed products that use the “icariins” type of extract are typically extremely weak and are usually very low priced to reflect this fact. Therefore be careful not to trip up on what looks to be a bargain-priced product through sheer lack of scrutiny with the products content information. If it states the word “icariins” instead of “icariin”, then move on immediately.
2. Which icariin product is globally rated as the best & is available to Australia?
There is a limited selection of Horny Goat Weed products available within Australia, therefore to get the most powerful extracts (in terms of the products that will provide a significantly effective daily dose of icariin) you need to be looking further afield.
As per the information provided in section 1 of this guide; to get the most benefit from icariin, you are best off looking at the Horny Goat Weed products that contain standardized 50% & 60% icariin extract, making sure to buy icariin (NOT icariins).
So then, which icariin product is rated the best and available to Australia?
Within the world of Horny Goat Weed, the gold-standard extract for gaining the most benefit from icariin is a product called icariin 60™ from a Swiss brand called World A.B.S — no, we don’t know what the letters “A.B.S” stand for.
The icariin 60™ is by no means considered new to the scene when it comes to icariin supplements. At the very least, when it comes to 60% icariin Horny Goat Weed extract, World A.B.S would be considered the pioneers of this extract strength, with the product dating back to 2009 and being available to Australia throughout that entire span.
Over the past decade, the World A.B.S brand has refined its icariin 60™ product in several notable ways. One of these innovative highlights is the fact that World A.B.S performed their own dosage trials with the icariin 60™ product to alleviate reliance on nonspecific dosage information for Horny Goat Weed and icariin. This is not something we see many brands perform and/or announce, as dosage trials typically involve a broad population and therefore are inherently expensive to conduct. These dosage trials performed by World A.B.S for the 60% icariin strength of Horny Goat Weed extract are not only rare but are beyond imperative for discovering the most effective daily dosage for a specific purity of extract. Many brands, for understandable reasons, tend to take the easier way out when deciding what their daily dosage should be, basing it merely on available data and/or what appears to be the most commonly adopted dosage figure by other well-established brands, without conducting any such dosage efficacy trails to ascertain the most advantageous daily dosage.
World A.B.S also looked into the bioavailability characteristics of icariin in order to select a capsule shell that would facilitate the optimum absorption of the extract into the body’s system, thus to minimise the amount of ‘wastage’ of the extract within the body’s process of digestion. This lead to World A.B.S using a different composition of capsule shell that they have since coined ‘icariinMAX — Optimum Delivery Capsules’.
To bring the focus back to the 60% icariin Horny Goat Weed extract itself, a few years ago World A.B.S switched over to sourcing their extract from the Mediterranean region of Europe as opposed to China. This is an interesting move as virtually all other Horny Goat Weed products on the market use extracts from Epimedium plants grown in the China. While in theory there shouldn’t actually be any purity differences between a 60% icariin extract coming from China and a 60% icariin extract coming from Europe, the crop growing and production standards of Europe are historically far more stringently followed than those of China, where production costs are always pressured to be lower and corners are therefore often cut. With this particular advancement, World A.B.S clearly sensed a good opportunity to keep their icariin 60™ product firmly positioned in the high-end classification, putting the quality of production before the cost of production.
As previously mentioned, the World A.B.S icariin 60™ Horny Goat Weed product has always been available to purchase by those based in Australia. It is currently shipped to Australia by their premier retailer at www.icariinhealth.com who dispatch the product from their United Kingdom location with delivery being carried out by Australia Post.
As per the information provided in section 1 of this guide; to get the most benefit from icariin, you are best off looking at the Horny Goat Weed products that contain standardized 50% & 60% icariin extract, making sure to buy icariin (NOT icariins).
So then, which icariin product is rated the best and available to Australia?
Within the world of Horny Goat Weed, the gold-standard extract for gaining the most benefit from icariin is a product called icariin 60™ from a Swiss brand called World A.B.S — no, we don’t know what the letters “A.B.S” stand for.
The icariin 60™ is by no means considered new to the scene when it comes to icariin supplements. At the very least, when it comes to 60% icariin Horny Goat Weed extract, World A.B.S would be considered the pioneers of this extract strength, with the product dating back to 2009 and being available to Australia throughout that entire span.
Over the past decade, the World A.B.S brand has refined its icariin 60™ product in several notable ways. One of these innovative highlights is the fact that World A.B.S performed their own dosage trials with the icariin 60™ product to alleviate reliance on nonspecific dosage information for Horny Goat Weed and icariin. This is not something we see many brands perform and/or announce, as dosage trials typically involve a broad population and therefore are inherently expensive to conduct. These dosage trials performed by World A.B.S for the 60% icariin strength of Horny Goat Weed extract are not only rare but are beyond imperative for discovering the most effective daily dosage for a specific purity of extract. Many brands, for understandable reasons, tend to take the easier way out when deciding what their daily dosage should be, basing it merely on available data and/or what appears to be the most commonly adopted dosage figure by other well-established brands, without conducting any such dosage efficacy trails to ascertain the most advantageous daily dosage.
World A.B.S also looked into the bioavailability characteristics of icariin in order to select a capsule shell that would facilitate the optimum absorption of the extract into the body’s system, thus to minimise the amount of ‘wastage’ of the extract within the body’s process of digestion. This lead to World A.B.S using a different composition of capsule shell that they have since coined ‘icariinMAX — Optimum Delivery Capsules’.
To bring the focus back to the 60% icariin Horny Goat Weed extract itself, a few years ago World A.B.S switched over to sourcing their extract from the Mediterranean region of Europe as opposed to China. This is an interesting move as virtually all other Horny Goat Weed products on the market use extracts from Epimedium plants grown in the China. While in theory there shouldn’t actually be any purity differences between a 60% icariin extract coming from China and a 60% icariin extract coming from Europe, the crop growing and production standards of Europe are historically far more stringently followed than those of China, where production costs are always pressured to be lower and corners are therefore often cut. With this particular advancement, World A.B.S clearly sensed a good opportunity to keep their icariin 60™ product firmly positioned in the high-end classification, putting the quality of production before the cost of production.
As previously mentioned, the World A.B.S icariin 60™ Horny Goat Weed product has always been available to purchase by those based in Australia. It is currently shipped to Australia by their premier retailer at www.icariinhealth.com who dispatch the product from their United Kingdom location with delivery being carried out by Australia Post.
3. Are there any restrictions to buying icariin extract supplements internationally for delivery into Australia?
In a word, no.
Australian customs are very straight-forward, they have a list of extracts and substances that are restricted, and as long as a product doesn’t contain any of those extracts or substances, then the product(s) will pass through customs without any problems. Horny Goat Weed extract, therefore icariin, is not restricted for import into Australia and never has been. You can therefore confidently shop internationally for high-strength icariin supplements without any concern.
There is one aspect to take into consideration when shopping internationally for any type of personal purchases coming to you into Australia. This point of consideration is simply that any single parcel/shipment which has a value above AUD$1,000 will be subject to duties and taxes on import. This is of course very easy to circumvent when it comes to buying icariin supplements, as staying below that AUD$1,000 threshold per parcel/shipment will not pose any problem with the sort of quantities of an icariin product that people would typically purchase in a single order. If when buying internationally, you are purchasing in a different currency to Australian Dollars, you can quickly check the equivalent in Australia Dollars with a simple Google search, such as the following for example: “200 USD to AUD”
Australian customs are very straight-forward, they have a list of extracts and substances that are restricted, and as long as a product doesn’t contain any of those extracts or substances, then the product(s) will pass through customs without any problems. Horny Goat Weed extract, therefore icariin, is not restricted for import into Australia and never has been. You can therefore confidently shop internationally for high-strength icariin supplements without any concern.
There is one aspect to take into consideration when shopping internationally for any type of personal purchases coming to you into Australia. This point of consideration is simply that any single parcel/shipment which has a value above AUD$1,000 will be subject to duties and taxes on import. This is of course very easy to circumvent when it comes to buying icariin supplements, as staying below that AUD$1,000 threshold per parcel/shipment will not pose any problem with the sort of quantities of an icariin product that people would typically purchase in a single order. If when buying internationally, you are purchasing in a different currency to Australian Dollars, you can quickly check the equivalent in Australia Dollars with a simple Google search, such as the following for example: “200 USD to AUD”
Making use of the tips provided in this buyer’s guide will enable you, as someone based in Australia, to confidently embrace the many health benefits to be gained from taking a good quality high-strength icariin extract product.