Shilajit is a sticky, pale-brown to blackish-brown substance that seeps out of rock layers, mostly in the Himalayas. It goes by many names, including mumie, mumijo, moomiyo and momiai. Ayurvedic medicine has long used it as a rasayana (rejuvenator), and it is now sold worldwide as a dietary supplement promoted for energy, endurance, testosterone and libido (Pandit et al., Andrologia 2016; Wilson et al., J Ethnopharmacol 2011).

The human evidence is thin. A few small randomized trials exist, and most tested one standardized commercial extract (PrimaVie) and were funded by its maker. The only placebo-controlled testosterone trial reported a rise of about 1 ng/mL, but its groups were unbalanced at the start. Because shilajit is a mineral-rich natural material, product testing has also found lead, mercury, arsenic and thallium in some samples.

This page summarizes what clinical trials, product-testing studies and regulators report. It is for education only and is not medical advice.

Property	Detail
Type	Traditional Ayurvedic material sold as a dietary supplement
Other names	Mumie, mumijo, moomiyo, momiai, mineral pitch
Composition	Over 80% humic substances (mainly fulvic acids) and about 20% calcium, potassium and magnesium by weight; varies by region
Route	Oral (resin, powder, capsules)
Doses used in trials	200–1,000 mg/day, for 28 days to 48 weeks
Half-life	Not known: no human pharmacokinetic data
Testosterone evidence	One placebo-controlled trial (75 completers) with a 90-day increase; groups differed at baseline
US status	Sold as a dietary supplement; FDA does not approve supplements before they are sold
WADA status	Not named on the 2026 Prohibited List

What it is

Shilajit is described as an exudate that oozes from sedimentary rock, largely in the Himalayas (Pandit et al., 2016). Where it comes from is still debated. A 2025 review of its chemistry noted that some researchers think it forms from decomposed plant material or animal droppings, while others regard it as a mineral that seeps from rock. The same review found that no complete chemical analysis has ever been done (Kamgar et al., Crit Rev Anal Chem 2025).

What is known about its make-up, from that review:

Humic substances make up more than 80% of its weight. Fulvic acid is the main one.
Minerals make up about 20%, mostly calcium, potassium and magnesium.
Smaller fractions include amino acids (mainly glycine), fatty acids and plant compounds such as caffeic and gallic acid.
Trace and heavy metals are also present, including chromium, selenium and cobalt.

Composition differs considerably between regions and products. In Ayurvedic texts, shilajit appears in 20 classical formulations and in 24 proprietary drugs (Wilson et al., 2011).

Standardized extracts

Most modern trials did not use raw resin. They used PrimaVie, a purified extract made by Natreon. In the testosterone trial it was standardized to contain (Pandit et al., 2016):

Component	Specification
Total bioactives	Not less than 60% w/w
Fulvic acids	Not less than 50% w/w
Dibenzo-α-pyrones (DBPs)	Not less than 0.3% w/w
Dibenzo-α-pyrone chromoproteins	Not less than 10% w/w

Results from this extract may not apply to raw shilajit or to other brands, whose content is not standardized in the same way.

Proposed mechanism

How shilajit might act in the body is not established. A 2014 review attributed its reported effects to dibenzo-α-pyrones, fulvic acid and their derivatives, largely on the basis of animal and cell studies (Stohs, Phytother Res 2014). A more critical 2011 review concluded that its bioactivity “lacks substantial evidence.” It found that antioxidant studies had used an irrelevant dose without a positive control, and that the immune-modulating claims did not hold up to critical assessment (Wilson et al., 2011).

How it behaves in the body

No study has measured how shilajit’s components are absorbed, distributed or cleared in people, so it has no known half-life. The one hint of absorption in humans comes from a trial in men with low sperm counts: HPLC analysis detected constituents of the extract in semen after 90 days of use (Biswas et al., Andrologia 2010).

Regulatory status

United States. Shilajit is sold as a dietary supplement. Under the Dietary Supplement Health and Education Act, FDA has no authority to approve supplements before they are marketed, and firms generally do not have to show FDA evidence of safety. FDA does not routinely analyze what supplements contain (FDA).
Sport. Shilajit and fulvic acid are not named on the WADA 2026 Prohibited List. The list covers anabolic agents and other classes, so any product contaminated or spiked with a prohibited substance would still count.

What the research shows

Testosterone

The only placebo-controlled trial of shilajit and testosterone enrolled 96 healthy men aged 45–55 in Kolkata, India (Pandit et al., 2016). All screened positive on a questionnaire for symptoms of low testosterone (the St Louis University ADAM questionnaire). They took PrimaVie 250 mg or placebo twice daily for 90 days. The company that makes PrimaVie funded the study.

Measure	Shilajit, baseline	Shilajit, day 90	Placebo, baseline	Placebo, day 90
Total testosterone (ng/mL)	4.84	5.83	5.82	4.45
Free testosterone (pg/mL)	15.36	18.30	19.30	12.21
DHEA-S (µg/dL)	145.09	190.57	139.60	138.77
LH (mIU/mL)	6.33	6.79	6.49	7.45
FSH (mIU/mL)	6.94	8.41	6.91	10.23

Total testosterone rose by 20.45% in the shilajit group, from about 484 to 583 ng/dL, and was significantly higher than placebo at day 90. Several features limit how much weight this result can carry:

The groups were not balanced at the start. Baseline testosterone was significantly higher in the placebo group (5.82 vs 4.84 ng/mL), and the placebo group then fell significantly. Part of the day-90 gap reflects that decline.
Only completers were analyzed. 21 of the 96 men dropped out, and their data were excluded.
No clinical outcomes. The trial reported hormone levels only, not symptoms, sexual function, muscle or strength.

A 2024 systematic review of “testosterone boosters” rated purified shilajit extract (PrimaVie) as “possibly effective” for men with late-onset hypogonadism, on the basis of this limited evidence (Morgado et al., Int J Impot Res 2024).

Sperm counts in men with oligospermia

An uncontrolled study gave processed shilajit 100 mg twice daily for 90 days to 35 men with sperm counts below 20 million/mL; 28 completed it (Biswas et al., 2010). Compared with their own baseline values:

Measure	Change after 90 days
Total sperm count	+61.4%
Normal sperm count	+18.9%
Motility	+12.4% to +17.4%
Semen malondialdehyde (oxidative stress marker)	−18.7%
Serum testosterone	+23.5%
FSH	+9.4%

There was no placebo group, so these changes cannot be separated from natural variation or regression to the mean.

Muscle fatigue and collagen

Two placebo-controlled trials in young, recreationally active men at the University of Nebraska tested PrimaVie for 8 weeks:

Strength after fatigue. 63 men took 250 mg/day, 500 mg/day or placebo (Keller et al., J Int Soc Sports Nutr 2019). Natreon funded the study. Shilajit had no significant effect on concentric peak torque. In a subgroup analysis of the stronger half of the men, those taking 500 mg/day lost less maximal isometric strength after a fatiguing exercise test (8.9% vs 16.0% on placebo). The 250 mg/day dose did no better than placebo. No adverse events were reported.
Collagen synthesis marker. 35 men took 500 mg/day, 1,000 mg/day or placebo (Neltner et al., J Diet Suppl 2024). Serum pro-c1α1, a blood marker of type 1 collagen production, rose in both shilajit groups but not with placebo.

Group (Neltner et al.)	Pro-c1α1 before (ng/mL)	Pro-c1α1 after 8 weeks (ng/mL)
Shilajit 500 mg/day	42.5	82.3
Shilajit 1,000 mg/day	42.7	113.1
Placebo	—	No significant change

A biomarker rise does not show any change in tendon, muscle or performance outcomes.

An earlier open-label study gave PrimaVie 250 mg twice daily to overweight and mildly obese adults for 8 weeks, then for 4 more weeks with exercise (Das et al., J Med Food 2016). Muscle biopsies showed higher activity of 17 genes related to the extracellular matrix (the structural scaffold around muscle fibers). The study had no control group and measured gene expression, not muscle size or strength.

Bone

Bone density after menopause. 60 postmenopausal women with osteopenia (low bone density) took placebo or a standardized shilajit extract at 250 or 500 mg/day for 48 weeks (Pingali & Nutalapati, Phytomedicine 2022). Bone density at the spine and hip fell on placebo, and this loss was smaller with shilajit in a dose-dependent way. Markers of bone turnover, oxidative stress and inflammation also improved. No fracture outcomes were reported.
Fracture healing. In an Iranian randomized trial, 160 adults with a new tibia fracture took two 500 mg capsules of momiai or placebo for 28 days after surgery (Sadeghi et al., J Altern Complement Med 2020). Mean time to bone union was 129 days vs 153 days with placebo (p under 0.049). Adverse effects did not differ between groups.

These trials are single studies that have not been independently repeated.

About “testosterone booster” and “endurance” claims. Shilajit is often marketed as a proven testosterone and stamina booster. The support for this is one manufacturer-funded trial with unbalanced groups, one uncontrolled study, and one fatigue trial whose benefit appeared only in a subgroup at one dose. None measured muscle growth or athletic performance against placebo.

Side effects and risks

Tolerability in trials

The trials above reported few problems, but they were small and short:

90 days at 200 mg/day: liver and kidney tests unchanged (Biswas et al., 2010).
8 weeks at 500 mg/day, then 4 weeks with exercise: no change in blood glucose, lipids, creatine kinase or myoglobin (Das et al., 2016).
8 weeks at 250–500 mg/day: no reported adverse events (Keller et al., 2019).
28 days of momiai after tibia fracture: adverse effects similar to placebo (Sadeghi et al., 2020).

These findings apply to the tested extracts at the tested doses. They do not show that untested resins or powders are safe.

High blood pressure and low potassium (case report)

A 37-year-old pregnant woman developed persistent high blood pressure and low blood potassium after taking a “mumijo” supplement for 6 months (Stavropoulos et al., Gynecol Endocrinol 2018). Doctors diagnosed a “licorice-like syndrome,” a state that mimics excess of the hormone aldosterone. It was treated with potassium and by stopping the supplement. The authors described it as the first such report; it remains a single case.

Who should be cautious

Pregnancy and breastfeeding. No safety data exist, and the case above occurred in pregnancy.
Children. Heavy-metal exposure matters most for children (see below), and no pediatric data exist.
People on medicines. We found no published human drug-interaction studies.

Quality and contamination

Because shilajit is a natural mineral material, contamination with toxic metals is the best-documented risk.

Ayurvedic products in general

Two JAMA studies by Saper and colleagues found toxic metals in about one in five Ayurvedic products sold in the US:

Study	Products tested	With lead, mercury or arsenic	Notes
Saper et al., JAMA 2004	70 South Asian-made products from Boston-area stores	14 (20%; 95% CI 11%–31%)	Taken as labeled, each of the 14 could give metal intakes above regulatory standards
Saper et al., JAMA 2008	193 products bought online	20.7% (95% CI 15.2%–27.1%)	US-made 21.7% vs Indian-made 19.5%; all metal-containing products exceeded at least one daily-intake standard

In the 2008 study:

Products made by combining herbs with metals and minerals (rasa shastra medicines) contained metals more often: 40.6% vs 17.1%.
95% of the metal-containing products were sold by US websites, and 75% claimed to follow Good Manufacturing Practices.
One US-made product sold as “Shilajit” contained lead at 10.5 µg/g, with no detectable mercury or arsenic. The study classified it as a rasa shastra medicine.

Studies of shilajit itself

Tests of shilajit samples have given mixed results:

Over limits. Indian and Pakistani shilajit samples analyzed with three methods contained lead, arsenic, mercury, nickel, chromium and other metals above standard permissible limits. Mercury was found only in the Indian sample (Aldakheel et al., Biol Trace Elem Res 2022).
Thallium. Natural shilajit contained up to 0.226 µg/g of thallium and commercial supplements up to 0.5 µg/g. Some supplements contained more than crude shilajit (Kamgar et al., BMC Chem 2025).
Below limits. In 12 samples from different regions, toxic metals including lead, cadmium and mercury were below established toxicity thresholds (Kamgar et al., J Trace Elem Med Biol 2026).
Review. A 2024 review found that most reported metal levels in shilajit were below WHO and FDA limits, with a few studies reporting levels above them (Hussain & Saeed, Biol Trace Elem Res 2024).

Metal content therefore depends on the source and processing of each batch, and labels alone do not reveal it. FDA does not test supplements before sale (FDA).

Key takeaways

A mineral-rich natural exudate. Shilajit is mostly humic substances such as fulvic acid plus minerals, and its exact chemistry and origin are still not fully known.
Small, mostly sponsor-funded trials. Most human studies tested one standardized extract (PrimaVie) and were funded by its manufacturer.
Weak testosterone evidence. One 90-day trial reported about a 20% rise in total testosterone, but the placebo group started higher and then fell.
No proof of muscle or performance gains. Fatigue and collagen findings come from subgroups or blood markers, not from muscle size or athletic results.
Heavy metals are a documented risk. About 20% of Ayurvedic products tested in two JAMA studies contained lead, mercury or arsenic, including one shilajit product with lead.
Not FDA-approved and no known half-life. It is sold as an unapproved supplement, and no human pharmacokinetic data exist.

Sources

Pandit S, Biswas S, Jana U, et al. Clinical evaluation of purified Shilajit on testosterone levels in healthy volunteers. Andrologia. 2016;48(5):570–575. PubMed.
Biswas TK, Pandit S, Mondal S, et al. Clinical evaluation of spermatogenic activity of processed Shilajit in oligospermia. Andrologia. 2010;42(1):48–56. PubMed.
Keller JL, Housh TJ, Hill EC, et al. The effects of Shilajit supplementation on fatigue-induced decreases in muscular strength and serum hydroxyproline levels. J Int Soc Sports Nutr. 2019;16(1):3. PubMed.
Neltner TJ, Sahoo PK, Smith RW, et al. Effects of 8 weeks of Shilajit supplementation on serum pro-c1α1, a biomarker of type 1 collagen synthesis: a randomized control trial. J Diet Suppl. 2024;21(1):1–12. PubMed.
Das A, Datta S, Rhea B, et al. The human skeletal muscle transcriptome in response to oral Shilajit supplementation. J Med Food. 2016;19(7):701–709. PubMed.
Pingali U, Nutalapati C. Shilajit extract reduces oxidative stress, inflammation, and bone loss to dose-dependently preserve bone mineral density in postmenopausal women with osteopenia: a randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled trial. Phytomedicine. 2022;105:154334. PubMed.
Sadeghi SMH, Hosseini Khameneh SM, Khodadoost M, et al. Efficacy of momiai in tibia fracture repair: a randomized double-blinded placebo-controlled clinical trial. J Altern Complement Med. 2020;26(6):521–528. PubMed.
Morgado A, Tsampoukas G, Sokolakis I, et al. Do “testosterone boosters” really increase serum total testosterone? A systematic review. Int J Impot Res. 2024;36(4):348–364. PubMed.
Stohs SJ. Safety and efficacy of shilajit (mumie, moomiyo). Phytother Res. 2014;28(4):475–479. PubMed.
Wilson E, Rajamanickam GV, Dubey GP, et al. Review on shilajit used in traditional Indian medicine. J Ethnopharmacol. 2011;136(1):1–9. PubMed.
Kamgar E, Kaykhaii M, Zembrzuska J. A comprehensive review on Shilajit: what we know about its chemical composition. Crit Rev Anal Chem. 2025;55(3):461–473. PubMed.
Stavropoulos K, Sotiriadis A, Patoulias D, et al. Pseudohyperaldosteronism due to mumijo consumption during pregnancy: a licorice-like syndrome. Gynecol Endocrinol. 2018;34(12):1019–1021. PubMed.
Saper RB, Kales SN, Paquin J, et al. Heavy metal content of ayurvedic herbal medicine products. JAMA. 2004;292(23):2868–2873. PubMed.
Saper RB, Phillips RS, Sehgal A, et al. Lead, mercury, and arsenic in US- and Indian-manufactured Ayurvedic medicines sold via the Internet. JAMA. 2008;300(8):915–923. PubMed; PMC.
Aldakheel RK, Gondal MA, Alsayed HN, et al. Rapid determination and quantification of nutritional and poisonous metals in vastly consumed Ayurvedic herbal medicine (rejuvenator Shilajit) by humans using three advanced analytical techniques. Biol Trace Elem Res. 2022;200(9):4199–4216. PubMed.
Kamgar E, Zembrzuska J, Zembrzuski W, et al. Quantifying of thallium in Shilajit and its supplements to unveil the potential risk of consumption of this popular traditional medicine. BMC Chem. 2025;19(1):20. PubMed.
Kamgar E, Angaïts A, Zembrzuska J, et al. Characterization of metal composition and molecular weight distribution in Shilajit. J Trace Elem Med Biol. 2026;96:127913. PubMed.
Hussain A, Saeed A. Hazardous or advantageous: uncovering the roles of heavy metals and humic substances in Shilajit (phyto-mineral) with emphasis on heavy metals toxicity and their detoxification mechanisms. Biol Trace Elem Res. 2024;202(12):5794–5814. PubMed.
US Food and Drug Administration. Questions and answers on dietary supplements. FDA.
World Anti-Doping Agency. The 2026 Prohibited List. WADA 2026 Prohibited List.

Shilajit