Magnolia Bark Extract, 2% Honokiol

Description

Magnolia bark extract from Magnolia officinalis, standardised to 2 percent honokiol, 60 servings at about 38 cents each. The bark of this tree, hou po, has been in continuous use in Chinese herbal practice for centuries, usually as cut bark decocted in water. A magnolia bark extract capsule with a stated honokiol percentage is the modern version of that material, and the percentage is the only part a laboratory can verify.

Label figures

Honokiol and magnolol, the two markers on a magnolia bark extract

Both are biphenolic lignans and both occur in the bark, usually with magnolol the more abundant of the two. Products standardise against one, the other or the sum, which means a 2 percent figure and a 90 percent figure can both be honest descriptions of different materials.

Reading which compound the percentage refers to is therefore the first job on any label here. Ours names honokiol and gives the assayed figure for the lot, with magnolol reported alongside it rather than merged into a single number.

Bark, and why the plant part is printed

Stem bark is the traditional material. Root bark and leaf have different compositions and are cheaper to obtain, and a milled powder gives no visual clue which was used. Identity testing on every lot confirms species and part, which is the only verification available from outside a supply chain.

Extract ratio, plant part and marker percentage are the three figures that make a botanical comparable, as the herbals page sets out at length. A magnolia bark extract missing any of the three is not comparable to anything.

What the published trials used

Most human work on this plant studied combination products, typically magnolia with phellodendron bark, at around 250 mg three times daily over six weeks, measuring salivary cortisol, perceived stress questionnaires and body composition. Trials on the isolated extract are few. That describes the literature, including how little of it is on magnolia alone, and it is not a claim about this bottle.

Cut bark against a magnolia bark extract

Traditional practice decocts cut bark in water for twenty minutes or more, which extracts the water soluble fraction and discards the rest. A magnolia bark extract capsule concentrates that fraction and fixes the weight, so the two are not comparable gram for gram and were never meant to be.

Cut bark is also cheaper and harder to verify, since a bag of chips gives no percentage at all. Both formats are legitimate. Only one of them can be checked against a certificate.

Why a magnolia bark extract is taken in the evening

Because that is when the combination trials administered it, and because the pharmacology literature describes these lignans as sedative rather than stimulant. The panel states the timing used in those studies rather than inventing a schedule of its own.

None of that makes a magnolia bark extract capsule a sleep product, and it is shelved here because of where buyers look for it rather than because of a claim we are making.

Sustainability, stated without decoration

Harvesting stem bark can kill a tree if it is done badly, and cultivated plantation material is the difference between a renewable supply and a destructive one. Where a supplier documents cultivation, that appears on the certificate. Where it does not, we do not invent a provenance story to fill the gap.

Sedation, and the interaction note

The pharmacological literature describes sedative activity for these lignans, so combining this with prescription sedatives or alcohol is a question for a pharmacist rather than a product page. The NCCIH herbs at a glance series gives free government summaries of what the research covers for botanicals generally.

Testing

Species identity, plant part, honokiol and magnolol content, heavy metals, pesticides and microbials are all measured on every lot by an outside laboratory. Off identity or under strength lots are withdrawn and their reports stay published. The rest of the night time range sits on the sleep and calm page, and your lot certificate is linked above.