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Ashwagandha
A root with no authorised EU health claim and an open question about the liver. We use it in four formulas, always in the morning and always in eight-week rounds with a pause in between, and the list of people it is not for is long. This page gives you all of it.
WHAT WE ARE ALLOWED TO SAY
No authorised claim. Nothing on the register to quote.
Ashwagandha has no health claim authorised under Regulation (EU) 432/2012. It is a botanical, and most botanical claims have been on the European Commission's on-hold list since 2010, waiting for EFSA to evaluate them. There is no EU herbal monograph for it either. So there is no wording we can quote for you, and we do not write a sentence that sounds like one.Ashwagandha has no health claim authorised under Regulation (EU) 432/2012, and no EU herbal monograph. There is no wording we can quote for you.
We use it in formulas for stress, cortisol, testosterone and sport, and none of those is an authorised claim for ashwagandha. What it has is a set of trials, mostly of 300 to 600 mg a day of standardised root extract for eight weeks, summarised by the US National Institutes of Health. That is a reason to include it, not a permission to promise anything. Where one of those formulas carries an authorised claim, it comes from the magnesium, zinc or vitamins next to it, not from the ashwagandha.
WHY THE ROOT
The root, standardised. Never the leaf.
The active compounds are withanolides, among them withanolide A, withaferin A and withanone, and withanosides. Our file prefers the root because its safety profile is better; the leaf carries more alkaloids, and we do not use it. So we specify the plant, the part and the standard: Withania somnifera root extract, standardised in withanolides. Our file also records a mild stimulating effect on the thyroid, which is why the thyroid questions on this page matter.
More alkaloids than the root, and a worse safety profile in our file. It is sometimes used in extracts. We do not use it.
Root extracts standardised in withanolides: KSM-66 at 5% or more, Sensoril at 10% or more. Our file lists both and has not settled on one yet.
Stable in a liquid, sensitive to light and heat, soluble in oil rather than water, and with an intense herbal taste. A concentrated form exists, which lets it take up less of the dose.
The trials behind it used 300 to 600 mg a day of these standardised root extracts, typically for eight weeks, and there are no safety data beyond 12 weeks. That is why every formula carrying it runs in eight-week rounds, and why we do not treat it as something to take all year.The trials behind it typically ran for eight weeks, and there are no safety data beyond 12. That is why every formula carrying it runs in eight-week rounds.
WHERE IT APPEARS
Four of the twenty-nine carry ashwagandha.
All four go out in the morning, with food where possible to spare your stomach, and all four run in the same rounds: eight weeks on, four off. Three carry 600 mg, the top of the range used in the trials. Low testosterone is still in development. Our notes do not yet agree on timing: one puts a single 600 mg dose at night, another keeps ashwagandha out of the night because it can be activating. That is waiting for a clinical decision.
THE CEILING
No EFSA limit. The cap in our file: 600 mg a day.
EFSA has not set a tolerable upper intake level for ashwagandha, so there is no official ceiling to draw here. Our ingredient file caps it at 600 mg a day across everything you take, and three of our formulas reach that on their own. The engine rule that tracks your total is looser: it blocks any addition at 1,200 mg a day, or after 90 days of continuous use. We have not reconciled the two figures yet, and we would rather tell you than pick one quietly. Neither figure is the whole answer: the rare cases of liver injury on record are not tied to the dose, several European authorities have issued warnings, and Denmark no longer allows it on free sale.EFSA has not set an upper limit for ashwagandha. Our file caps it at 600 mg a day across your whole plan; the engine rule blocks at 1,200 mg or after 90 days, and we have not reconciled the two yet.
Every formula carrying it runs for 56 days and then pauses for 28, with three rounds a year at most: no more than 24 weeks of ashwagandha in a year. The eight weeks follow the length of the trials. The pause and the three-round limit are our own precaution for the liver; no authority sets them.
Each round ends with a check before the next one. Chronic cortisol looks at morning cortisol, perceived stress (the PSS-10 scale), liver enzymes (ALT and AST) and TSH. Low testosterone looks at testosterone, SHBG, oestradiol and PSA. Stress & nervous system looks at morning cortisol or the PSS-10, Daily athletic at your performance, and both add TSH and liver enzymes where there is any thyroid risk or liver doubt.
It is excluded if you are pregnant or breastfeeding (it has shown abortive potential in animal studies), under 18, have liver disease or raised liver enzymes (an absolute contraindication in our file), a thyroid disorder, including hyperthyroidism and Graves' disease, hyperandrogenism or a heart condition, or take sedatives that act on the brain. Our file also rules it out if you take other medicines that can harm the liver. An active autoimmune condition, such as lupus, rheumatoid arthritis, multiple sclerosis or Hashimoto's thyroiditis, is a relative contraindication, because it stimulates the immune system: Stress & nervous system and Chronic cortisol exclude it, and for the other two, ask a doctor first. Ask a doctor first if you take thyroid medication or immunosuppressants, and ask your oncologist first if you have cancer, as some tumours are hormone-sensitive. Low testosterone is excluded outright if you have prostate cancer. Stop it two weeks before planned surgery. Stop it and see a doctor if you notice signs of liver trouble: yellowing of the skin or eyes, unusual tiredness or pain in the upper abdomen. Side effects are usually mild, drowsiness or an upset stomach, but rare, reversible cases of liver injury have been reported.
WHAT IT REACTS WITH
Documented pairs, not hunches.
Ashwagandha is one of the 140 ingredients in our library, so it has 139 possible partners. Seven of them are documented so far, out of the 443 pairs on file, and three medication pairs sit alongside them.
Charcoal binds its plant compounds, so it is never served in the same dose and stays at least 3 hours away. Glucomannan can lower how much of the extract you absorb, so it stays at least 2 hours away.
Our file describes rhodiola as activating, for the morning, and ashwagandha as sedating, for later in the day: in one dose they send opposite signals to the stress axis. The rule on file is to keep them in separate doses, morning and night. Stress & nervous system and Chronic cortisol carry both in the same morning dose today, and that contradiction is waiting for a clinical decision.
Both have a mild effect on serotonin, and it adds up. The rule on file is to avoid the pair.
Magnesium works on a complementary pathway and can share a formula for stress or sleep; all four of our ashwagandha formulas carry it. GABA acts on the same calming receptor, and L-tyrosine is filed as a pairing for chronic stress with tiredness. Compatible means they can share a dose; it is not a promise about how you will feel.
With immunosuppressants it works against the treatment, because it stimulates the immune system: it is contraindicated after a transplant, or with an autoimmune condition under treatment. With levothyroxine it can raise your own T4 and tip you into an overactive thyroid, so TSH should be monitored and the dose may need adjusting. With benzodiazepines both act on GABA, so watch for extra sedation. Our notes also list alcohol and other sedatives, diabetes medication (blood sugar can drop further), blood pressure medication, and medicines that can harm the liver, such as paracetamol, isoniazid or methotrexate. It is cleared by the liver and modulates CYP3A4. The app asks about medication before any formula carrying it is assigned.
443 of the 9,730 possible pairs in our library are documented, which is 4.55%. The rest are not "safe", they are simply unchecked. Our notes also flag other adaptogens such as ginseng and tulsi, potentially liver-toxic ingredients such as kava and green tea extract, and iodine-rich seaweed, which acts on the thyroid; none is entered as a pair yet. The same notes count L-tyrosine as adding to the thyroid effect, while the pair on file calls it compatible, and we have not reconciled the two. We would rather write that down than let the number look like a badge.443 of the 9,730 possible pairs in our library are documented, which is 4.55%. The rest are not safe, they are simply unchecked. Several of ashwagandha's interactions still come from our notes, not from documented pairs.
SOURCES
Everything on this page, with its reference.
Reviewed by VION nutrition team · last reviewed 16 September 2026Read the introduction to Ashwagandha →
140 INGREDIENTS · 64 IN USE TODAY
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What it is, what we are allowed to say about it, which formulas carry it, what it reacts with and where each of those statements comes from. No proprietary blends, no hidden amounts.