Astaria

This ingredient is extracted from Urtica Diodica, or more commonly referred too as stinging nettle. Now before we begin, if you do decide to purchase a product with this ingredient be sure to get it standardized for this ingredient not just simply ‘Stinging Nettle extract’ or ‘Urtica Diodica extract’. With these you aren’t sure how concentrated their extract is for that ingredient. How does 3,4-Divanillytetrahydrofuran work? 3,4-Divanillyltetrahydrofuran primarily works by attaching to the sex hormone-binding globulin (SHBG). What SHBG does is bind to your sex hormones; mostly testosterone and estradiol. So the basic function of SHBG is to regulate the amount of biologically active hormones in your body. The reasons for this are unclear, however I’m guessing it is because your body loves equilibrium. Anyways, now that we know what SHBG is we can understand how 3,4-Divanillytetrahydrofuran works. It attaches to SHBG thus rendering it inactive so it is metabolism booster then unable to bind to your sex hormones. This in theory will allow your free testosterone and estradiol to rise, and we know higher testosterone promotes muscle growth.And now for the research. There are only a few scholarly journals on this ingredient because sadly none are free, however they do note3,4-Divanillyltetrahydrofuran binding affinity for SHBG. In one journal they state “All lignans except (-)-pinoresinol developed a binding affinity to SHBG in the in vitro assay. The affinity of (-)-3,4-divanillyltetrahydrofuran was outstandingly high” (1).Another journal says the same, “Lignans bind to sex hormone-binding globulin (SHBG). The lignan with the greatest binding affinity is (+/-)-3,4-divanillyltetrahydrofuran” (2).Although we aren’t able to see the actual research done, this information from the abstract does state that 3,4-divanillyltetrahydrofuran attaches to SHBG. This shows that the claims are true, however to what extent is not known.