What is ecdysterone?

Ecdysterone – also written 20-hydroxyecdysone, 20E, β-ecdysone or 20-hydroxyecdysterone – is the best-studied member of the phytoecdysteroids, a family of more than 500 steroid-like molecules that plants produce to defend themselves against insects. In insects the same molecule is the moulting hormone; in plants it is a chemical weapon; in mammals it is neither a hormone nor a toxin, but a signalling molecule with a remarkable effect on muscle protein synthesis.

Chemically, ecdysterone is a polyhydroxylated cholesterol derivative with a four-ring steroid skeleton. The hydroxyl group at carbon 20 is what correlates with anabolic activity – which is why 20-hydroxyecdysone, not plain ecdysone, is the compound athletes want. Roughly 6% of plant species contain detectable phytoecdysteroids, and a handful accumulate them in useful amounts: Rhaponticum carthamoides (maral root, leuzea), Cyanotis arachnoidea, Ajuga turkestanica, spinach and quinoa.

Ecdysterone has been part of elite sport since the 1970s, when Soviet sports-science institutes began using Rhaponticum preparations with Olympic athletes – the origin of the “Russian secret” label that Western researchers later attached to it. Since 2020 it has been on the World Anti-Doping Agency’s Monitoring Program: WADA tracks its use in sport but has not prohibited it.

How does ecdysterone work?

Ecdysterone’s primary action is to increase protein synthesis in skeletal muscle cells. In the landmark cell study by Gorelick-Feldman and colleagues at Rutgers University (2008), 20-hydroxyecdysone increased protein synthesis in human and mouse muscle cells by up to around 20% – an effect comparable to IGF-1 – and in rats seven days of ecdysterone produced a measurable increase in grip strength. The effect was blocked by a PI3K inhibitor, pointing to the PI3K/Akt pathway, the same anabolic signalling route that insulin and IGF-1 use.

Crucially, ecdysterone does not bind the androgen receptor. Work from the Freie Universität Berlin group (Parr et al. 2014, 2015) showed that its anabolic effect is mediated through estrogen receptor beta (ERβ) – a receptor expressed in muscle, bone, brain and fat that is linked to muscle growth and repair but not to the masculinising effects of androgens. In rats, ecdysterone produced muscle-fibre hypertrophy comparable to or greater than the anabolic steroid metandienone and the SARM S-1, while leaving the prostate and seminal vesicles untouched.

Beyond protein synthesis, Soviet and later research describe several supporting actions that matter to athletes:

• Energy metabolism: ecdysterone increased ATP and creatine phosphate content in skeletal muscle in animal work (Kholodova 1997).
• Reduced protein breakdown: Chermnykh and Syrov (1988) reported improved nitrogen balance and physical endurance in animals, with ecdysterone matching methandrostenolone on protein metabolism without its side effects.
• Glucose and lipid handling: ecdysterone lowered blood glucose and improved lipid profiles in multiple animal models – a plausible contributor to its body-composition effects.
• Adaptogenic action: Rhaponticum carthamoides was formally classified as an adaptogen by Brekhman and Dardymov in 1969; extracts improve resistance to physical and psychological stress in animal studies.

Is ecdysterone a steroid? Is it a hormone?

Ecdysterone is a steroid in the strict chemical sense – it has the four-ring sterane skeleton – but it is not an anabolic-androgenic steroid and it is not a human hormone. The differences are fundamental:

Rhaponticum carthamoides extract vs spinach, Cyanotis, quinoa and turkesterone – what is the difference?

“Ecdysterone” on a label tells you the molecule, not the source – and the source decides the phytosteroid profile, the purity, the contaminant risk and, ultimately, whether the product works. Here is how the five sources on the market compare.

Why do extract ratio and standardisation decide the result?

Three Rhaponticum products can carry the same plant name and deliver wildly different doses. Understanding three numbers protects you:

What does “pharmaceutical HPLC quality” mean – and why does most of the ecdysterone market fail the test?

High-Performance Liquid Chromatography (HPLC) is the analytical method pharmacopoeias use to identify and quantify ecdysterone: a sample is separated on a column, each compound is detected by its retention time and UV spectrum against a certified β-ecdysterone reference standard, and the exact milligram content is calculated. Pharmaceutical-grade extracts are tested this way batch by batch, so the number on the certificate of analysis is a measurement, not an estimate. Cheap extracts may be sold on the basis of a supplier’s declared percentage that nobody has verified – and the published evidence shows what happens when nobody checks.

How to read an ecdysterone label like an analyst

• Botanical name and plant part: Rhaponticum carthamoides (Willd.) Iljin, root. If the plant is unnamed, assume Cyanotis.
• Extract ratio: 20:1 is the benchmark for root extract.
• Standardisation percentage and method: “90% ecdysteroids (HPLC)” or “95% 20-hydroxyecdysone (HPLC)”. No percentage = no guarantee.
• Milligrams of extract AND milligrams of ecdysterone: both should appear. Ecdy-Bol: 150 mg extract → 135 mg ecdysterones per 3 capsules.
• Manufacturing standard: ISO 9001 / GMP certification of the facility, not just the raw material.
• Price sanity check: a genuine 100+ mg daily dose of 90% Rhaponticum extract cannot be sold for the price of spinach powder.

Every SCN™ Ecdy-Bol batch is produced in a Bureau Veritas ISO 9001-certified pharmaceutical-standard facility from Rhaponticum carthamoides 20:1 root extract standardised to 90% ecdysteroids – the full specification is printed on the label.

Does ecdysterone improve endurance?

Endurance is where ecdysterone’s story began. Soviet sports pharmacologists adopted Rhaponticum preparations in the 1970s–80s precisely because they extended physical work capacity. Chermnykh, Shimanovsky, Shutko and Syrov (1988) compared ecdysterone directly with the anabolic steroid methandrostenolone in animals and found that ecdysterone increased physical endurance and improved protein metabolism in skeletal muscle – matching the steroid’s anabolic effect without its androgenic actions. Kholodova’s group (1997) reported higher skeletal-muscle ATP and creatine-phosphate stores after ecdysterone, the fuel reserves that decide how long you can hold power.

Two further mechanisms are relevant to the endurance athlete. First, ecdysterone’s PI3K/Akt signalling is the same pathway that drives muscle protein synthesis after training – which translates into faster repair between sessions in a high-volume week. Second, the metabolic literature shows ecdysterone improving glucose disposal and lipid metabolism in animal models and early human work (a randomised controlled study in metabolic syndrome), supporting the efficient fuel handling that endurance performance depends on. Early Russian reports also describe effects on red-blood-cell production; this remains an area of interest rather than established fact.

For endurance athletes, the practical benefit of ecdysterone is not bulk. It is the ability to maintain or build lean, functional muscle and power under heavy training loads – the muscle that protects your economy and your finishing kick – while recovering faster, without water retention and without anything on the WADA Prohibited List.

A 2021 randomised controlled trial reinforces the point from a different angle: in adults over 50 doing moderate exercise, 12 weeks of a spinach-derived ecdysteroid extract improved muscle quality and muscle-related measures versus placebo (Pérez-Piñero et al.) – evidence that ecdysteroids help the body convert training into functional muscle even in populations where that is hardest.

Does ecdysterone increase strength?

Yes – and the evidence here is the strongest in the whole phytoecdysteroid literature. In 2019 Isenmann, Parr and colleagues at the Freie Universität Berlin and the German Sport University Cologne published, in Archives of Toxicology, a 10-week double-blind, placebo-controlled trial in 46 resistance-trained young men, funded in part by WADA to find out whether ecdysterone deserved a place on the Prohibited List.

The authors’ conclusion was blunt: the results “strongly suggest” including ecdysterone in WADA’s class S1 anabolic agents. Lead author Dr Maria Parr described the bench-press increases as “drastic”. WADA responded by placing ecdysterone on the Monitoring Program in 2020 – where it still sits today, legal for athletes.

The strength effect has mechanistic support going back a decade earlier: Gorelick-Feldman’s rats gained grip strength after seven days of ecdysterone, and Syrov’s comparative work (2000) placed phytoecdysteroids alongside synthetic anabolic agents on anabolic activity. Importantly, the Berlin trial’s analysis of its own supplement showed the effective dose was far lower than typical label claims – meaning a verified 135 mg daily dose, as in Ecdy-Bol, sits well above the amount that produced these results.

Does ecdysterone build muscle mass?

Ecdysterone builds muscle through a different door than hormones. By activating ERβ and the PI3K/Akt pathway it increases the rate of muscle protein synthesis – the cell study measured up to ~20% – and by improving nitrogen balance it reduces net protein loss. The result in animals is muscle-fibre hypertrophy: Parr’s 2015 rat study found ecdysterone’s effect on fibre size comparable to or exceeding metandienone, estradienedione and the SARM S-1. In humans, the Berlin trial recorded significantly greater muscle-mass gains than placebo in just 10 weeks.

Three features make ecdysterone’s muscle gain particularly valuable:

• It is lean, functional tissue. No water retention, no fat gain – the Berlin trial and Seidlova-Wuttke’s rat work both point to improved body composition.
• It works without hormones, so it is suitable for athletes of either sex and for men who do not want to disturb their own testosterone.
• It stacks additively with nutrition. Ecdysterone raises the demand for amino acids; the Berlin protocol paired it with leucine. Athletes using Ecdy-Bol should raise pre/intra-training amino acids and post-training protein accordingly (see Complete x4 και Endurance i-BCAA 6:1:1).

Beyond sport, the same mechanism is now in pharmaceutical development: a purified 20-hydroxyecdysone drug candidate (BIO101) has completed clinical trials for age-related muscle loss, with doses of 350 mg twice daily judged safe for up to nine months. Muscle preservation with ageing is one of the most promising long-term applications of this molecule.

8 sport benefits of ecdysterone

What does ecdysterone do to your hormones?

This is the most misunderstood part of the ecdysterone story, so let us be precise. Ecdysterone does not raise testosterone. It is not a testosterone booster in the pharmacological sense, and any product claiming that ecdysterone alone increases testosterone is misreading the science. What ecdysterone does hormonally is arguably more valuable for most athletes:

The hormonal bottom line: ecdysterone gives you an anabolic effect that is androgen-independent, non-suppressive, non-aromatising and compatible with both sexes – and when your goal includes testosterone support, you stack it with ingredients designed for that job rather than expecting ecdysterone to do it alone.

8 health benefits of ecdysterone beyond sport

The 2024 systematic review in Nutrients (Todorova et al.) collected 115 studies on the biological activity of ecdysterone and its source plants. The pattern that emerges is of a compound with broad, low-toxicity benefits for healthy ageing. The evidence below is largely preclinical unless stated; it describes areas of active research, not medical claims.

Which athletes benefit most from ecdysterone?

How much ecdysterone should you take, and when?

Published human data give useful anchors. The Berlin trial produced significant strength and muscle gains at actual ecdysterone intakes that laboratory analysis showed were far lower than the label implied – the review literature places the effective threshold above roughly 5 µg per kilogram of bodyweight per day, with higher intakes producing larger effects in the trial’s high-dose group. Pharmaceutical development has used 350 mg twice daily for up to nine months without safety signals. Commercial recommendations for athletes range from 200 to 1,000 mg of extract per day – a figure that is meaningless unless the extract’s ecdysterone percentage is known.

SCN™ Ecdy-Bol delivers 135 mg of verified ecdysterones per day from three capsules – comfortably above the effective range in the human research, well below the pharmaceutical ceiling, and stated as milligrams of active, not milligrams of plant.

Is ecdysterone safe? Is it legal for drug-tested athletes?

Ecdysterone has one of the widest safety margins of any active compound in sports nutrition. The oral LD50 in mice exceeds 9 g per kilogram – thousands of times any supplemental dose. Rats fed up to 500 mg/kg daily for three months showed no adverse responses. In the 10-week human trial there was no increase in liver or kidney toxicity biomarkers and no change in the steroid hormone profile. A purified pharmaceutical form has been judged safe at 700 mg per day for nine months. Reviews consistently describe ecdysteroids as non-toxic to mammals.

Anti-doping status: ecdysterone is on WADA’s Monitoring Program (anabolic agents, in- and out-of-competition) and has been since 2020. The Monitoring Program is explicitly for substances that are not on the Prohibited List but that WADA wishes to observe. It is legal to use in competition today. Athletes remain responsible for checking their own federation’s current rules.

The real safety issue with ecdysterone is not the molecule – it is the προϊόν. Unverified extracts have been found mislabelled, counterfeited and, in the wider “natural anabolic” category, contaminated with prohibited steroids. Choose a product that names the plant, the extract ratio, the HPLC standardisation and the certified facility, and the risk disappears. Ecdysterone is not recommended during pregnancy or breastfeeding, or for anyone under 18.

SCN™ products that contain ecdysterone

Ecdysterone FAQ

Αναφορές

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18. Pérez-Piñero S, Ávila-Gandía V, Rubio Arias JA, et al. Supplementation with spinach-derived ecdysteroids and exercise in adults over 50: a randomised controlled trial on muscle quality. 2021.
19. Franco RR, et al. A 20-hydroxyecdysone-enriched fraction from Pfaffia glomerata roots alleviates stress, anxiety, and depression in mice. J Ethnopharmacol. 2021;267:113599.
20. World Anti-Doping Agency. 2026 Monitoring Program. Ecdysterone listed under Anabolic Agents, in- and out-of-competition.

This article is for education and general information only and does not constitute medical advice. Food supplements are not a substitute for a varied, balanced diet and a healthy lifestyle and are not intended to diagnose, treat, cure or prevent any disease. Much of the health research cited is preclinical. Consult your physician before starting any supplement, particularly if you have a medical condition or take medication. Testofen® is a registered trademark of Gencor Pacific.