Powdered oxymatrine (in capsules) more potent than tablets

Powdered oxymatrine has a much more potent effect, compared to the same dose of oxymatrine in a tablet

I recently discovered that powdered oxymatrine seems to be considerably more potent than oxymatrine tablets. I am assuming this is because powdered oxymatrine is absorbed better in the gut compared to a solid tablet of oxymatrine. This may make powered oxymatrine (in capsules) a better treatment for ME/CFS.


You can test this for yourself

You can test this yourself: if you crush a regular oxymatrine tablet into fine powder, and swallow this power with some water (it tastes yuk!), or preferably put the powder into an empty capsule and swallow that (so that you don't have to taste the oxymatrine), you will likely find that you get mild dizziness symptoms within an hour. This mild dizziness may have never appeared when you took oxymatrine as a tablet, but this dizziness suddenly appears when you take same amount of oxymatrine as a fine powder.

Dizziness is a known side effect of taking higher doses of oxymatrine. So the fact that I found this dizziness only appears with the powdered oxymatrine, and not with the same dose in tablet form, suggests that the gut much better absorbs powder compared to tablet. Another person who tried this experiment also found that powdered oxymatrine from a crushed tablet causes the dizziness side effect, but same dose as a solid tablet does not.


Dr Chia's Studies

Dr Chia reported he obtained good results with oxymatrine tablets in about 25% of the ME/CFS patients that took them (with another 25% of his patients getting some mild improvements, and the remaining 50% getting no improvements with oxymatrine).

I am now thinking that perhaps Dr Chia's patients that did not respond to oxymatrine just had problems with absorbing oxymatrine in the gut! Perhaps if they tried powdered oxymatrine instead, then these non-responders would also see benefits?

Since ME/CFS patients often have weak digestion, this may make absorption of solid oxymatrine tablets harder, but powdered oxymatrine in capsules may be easier to digest. So if you have tried oxymatrine and found little effect, consider trying powdered oxymatrine in capsules.

Note that people who get strong reactions from oxymatrine should be careful when trying powdered oxymatrine, as you will likely be absorbing a higher dose. Try low doses first.

Incidentally, if the mild dizziness symptoms of powdered oxymatrine are a concern, just take the oxymatrine before bed, and you won't notice the mild dizziness when you fall asleep. The herb ginger is also good at eliminating dizziness.


Some sources of oxymatrine:

White Tiger brand oxymatrine tablets containing 200 mg oxymatrine can be found here: 1, 2, 3, 4.

Equilibrant (Dr Chia's brand) oxymatrine tablets are available here.

Oxymatrine capsules (containing 300 mg of oxymatrine powder) are available here.

Note that Dr Chia says oxymatrine is not recommended for people with autoimmune tendencies or seizure disorders.

Thanks go to wjrf for bringing this info about powdered oxymatrine to my attention.

Is there a way to know if we have autoimmune tendencies? Don't some consider CFS to possibly be autoimmune? Is this an immune modulator, or booster? So many questions I have, sorry!

"Autoimmune tendency means a strong family history of autoimmune diseases such as rheumatoid arthritis, lupus, autoimmune thyroiditis (especially Graves disease), multiple sclerosis, and if the patients have joint pain with positive rheumatoid factor and persistently positive ANA." Ref: here.

Nobody really knows for sure how oxymatrine works, but it is most likely a Th2 > Th1 immunomodulator.

Just found this a study (see blow) showing that the oral bioavailability of oxymatrine is quite low, around 19%.

I do wonder whether the non-responders to oxymatrine might just be those who don't absorb enough oxymatrine from their guts? Injectable forms of oxymatrine are on sale in China, such as on this website here. Might non-responders to oral oxymatrine (I am one of them) do better on injectable oxymatrine?