Inside the formula: origin, chemistry and research for all eleven ingredients

Chromium: the trace element that hitches a ride on the iron transporter

Trivalent chromium occurs in wholegrains, broccoli and meat, usually in microgram quantities. In MedicGLP it’s chromium picolinate, a complex of one chromium ion and three molecules of picolinic acid. What’s interesting is how it travels: in the bloodstream, chromium binds to transferrin, the protein that normally carries iron. Inside the cells it is handed on to a small oligopeptide rich in glutamate and aspartate, known as chromodulin, and is eventually excreted in the urine. Exactly how chromium picolinate hands its chromium over to that peptide was described by Sun et al. (Journal of Biological Inorganic Chemistry, 2000); Clodfelder et al. (Journal of Biological Inorganic Chemistry, 2001) traced the full route from blood to urine.

Green tea leaf extract: 154 mg from the most studied leaf in the world

Camellia sinensis gives us green, black and oolong tea — the difference is in the processing, not the plant. Green tea is heated briefly, before its enzymes can start converting the catechins. Those catechins account for up to a third of the dry weight of the leaf, and the most abundant of them is epigallocatechin gallate (EGCG). Pharmacologically, the point is that catechins act on transport proteins in the gut. A review of clinical studies by Kyriacou et al. (Clinical Pharmacology & Therapeutics, 2025) found reduced systemic drug exposure in 72% of the analyses, through mechanisms including inhibition of OATP1A2 and effects on P-glycoprotein.

Apple cider vinegar: two fermentations to reach acetic acid

Apple cider vinegar is made in two stages. First, yeasts ferment the fruit sugars into alcohol; then acetic acid bacteria of the genus Acetobacter oxidise that alcohol into acetic acid. That acetic acid, typically five to six per cent, is what makes vinegar vinegar. MedicGLP contains 150 mg in dried form — not liquid vinegar, but a powder dried onto a carrier, which is the only way it fits in a capsule.

Berberine: a yellow dye with complicated pharmacokinetics

Berberine is an isoquinoline alkaloid, and it colours the wood of barberry and its relatives a vivid yellow — which is what it was historically used for, as a dye for textiles and leather. Pharmacologically, it’s one of the most thoroughly studied plant compounds around, and the reason for that is, ironically, a problem: oral bioavailability sits below one per cent. It dissolves poorly in the gut, is pumped back out by P-glycoprotein, and is largely metabolised in the gut wall and the liver. The review by Khoshandam et al. (Phytotherapy Research, 2022) also notes that taking it alongside medicines such as metformin, ciclosporin A or digoxin can produce meaningful interactions. Clinical studies, meanwhile, consistently use daily amounts many times higher than the 85 mg in this formula.

Ginger root: what happens to gingerols on drying

What we call a root is botanically a rhizome, an underground stem. The heat of fresh ginger comes from its gingerols, chiefly 6-gingerol. Drying and heating drive off water, converting the gingerols into shogaols, which taste considerably sharper. It’s why dried ginger has a different kind of bite. MedicGLP contains 50 mg of ginger root.

Cinnamon bark extract: why the species belongs on the label

Several species are sold as “cinnamon”. The MedicGLP label says Cinnamomum cassia, Chinese cinnamon, at 20 mg — not Cinnamomum verum, the Ceylon cinnamon from Sri Lanka. That’s not a distinction for botanists only: cassia contains substantially more coumarin, for which EFSA has derived a tolerable daily intake of 0.1 mg per kilogram of body weight. Oketch-Rabah et al. (Clinical Pharmacology & Therapeutics, 2018) have shown how loose species naming undermines any comparison of cinnamon data. So the species goes on the label.

Bitter orange: a fruit too bitter to eat

Citrus aurantium grows around the Mediterranean and in southern China. The fruit is too bitter to eat raw, which didn’t stop it becoming the basis of English marmalade and curaçao. Pharmacologically, the unripe fruit is defined by p-synephrine, a protoalkaloid structurally similar to ephedrine — though with a markedly different receptor binding profile. Reviewing human, animal and in vitro data, Stohs et al. (Phytotherapy Research, 2011) concluded that bitter orange extract appeared safe at the doses in common use. A later meta-analysis of 18 placebo-controlled trials by Koncz et al. (Nutrients, 2022) found significant rises in systolic and diastolic blood pressure after prolonged use, at 6.37 and 4.33 mmHg respectively. MedicGLP contains 20 mg.

Cayenne fruit: capsaicin and the receptor for heat

Capsaicin binds to TRPV1, an ion channel in sensory nerve endings that normally responds to temperatures above roughly 43 degrees. The brain reports heat when nothing is hot. Birds carry a variant of the channel that does not recognise capsaicin, which is probably why chillies spread their seeds through birds rather than mammals. The formula contains 20 mg of Capsicum annuum.

Banaba leaf: a tree from the Philippines

Lagerstroemia speciosa is a tree that reaches 20 metres and flowers in a startling purple. Known in the Philippines as banaba, its leaves have been brewed there as an infusion for generations. The constituents that have been chemically characterised are mainly the triterpene corosolic acid, along with several ellagitannins — among them lagerstroemin and the lagerstannins. MedicGLP contains 5 mg of leaf extract.

Korean ginseng: six years in the ground, then gut bacteria

Panax ginseng is traditionally grown in Korea for six years before the root is lifted. Its signature compounds are the ginsenosides, triterpene saponins with sugar groups attached. The notable part: they are largely activated only once they reach the gut. Bacteria cleave off the sugars, producing compound K, which is more soluble and better absorbed than the parent compounds. Gut flora differ from person to person, and so does that conversion — as set out by Sharma and Lee (Biomolecules, 2020).

Resveratrol: 1 mg from Japanese knotweed

Resveratrol made its name on red wine, but commercially it almost always comes from Polygonum cuspidatum, Japanese knotweed. Chemically it is a stilbene, produced by the plant in response to fungal attack. In humans, around 75% of it is absorbed, but it’s then bound so rapidly to glucuronic acid and sulfate in the gut wall and liver that the availability of free resveratrol falls below one per cent, as summarised by Walle (Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences, 2011). At 1 mg, resveratrol is the smallest amount in the formula.

What this means for MedicGLP

Of the eleven ingredients, exactly one carries an authorised health claim: chromium, at 100 µg per capsule and 250% of the Nutrient Reference Value. For the ten botanical ingredients, no claim is authorised on the GB nutrition and health claims register. They appear on this page with their origin, their chemistry and what the research shows — and with no benefit claimed on the back of any of it.