Lymph Savior Ingredients: The Eleven Botanicals on the Label

1. Red Clover Extract — 225 mcg

Red clover is a pasture legume, and the label specifies the leaves and flowers; at 225 mcg per serving it is the largest amount on the panel. NCCIH’s page opens with the chemistry rather than the folklore: “Red clover contains substances called isoflavones that are structurally similar to estrogen.” That single sentence is the reason red clover is studied at all, and it is also the reason it carries a pregnancy caution.

The evidence NCCIH describes is not about lymph. It is about menopause and cholesterol, and it is mixed. “Studies on the effects of red clover on hot flashes associated with menopause have had inconsistent results, and some of the studies had a high risk of bias.” On cholesterol: “Red clover may have a beneficial effect on cholesterol levels in postmenopausal women, but more research is needed.” On bone density the results are again “inconsistent”.

2. Horse Chestnut Extract — 200 mcg

Horse chestnut is the row where this page can quote a positive finding from a federal review. NCCIH reports: “A 2012 systematic review of 17 studies suggested that horse chestnut seed extract can improve symptoms of CVI”, and adds that “Results from one of these studies suggested that horse chestnut seed extract may be as effective as wearing compression stockings.” The review also noted “a need for more rigorous, large-scale randomized controlled trials”.

Two things have to be said next to that finding. The first is that CVI is chronic venous insufficiency — a disorder of the veins in the legs. The venous system and the lymphatic system are not the same system, and a finding about one is not evidence about the other. The second is that the research used standardised seed extract. This label prints the same kind of material, “Horse Chestnut Extract (Aesculus hippocastanum) (seed) (std. to 20% aescin)”, at 200 mcg per serving. No trial of this formula has been published, so the review describes the ingredient, not this capsule.

3. Red Root Powder — 210 mcg

Red root is the common name for Ceanothus americanus, a North American shrub also called New Jersey tea. In herbal tradition it is the lymphatic herb, which is very likely why it is on this label at all — it is the row that makes the product’s name make sense. The panel prints it third, at 210 mcg, directly under horse chestnut’s 200 mcg; the order is the label’s, and this page keeps it.

This site found no consumer page for it on NCCIH, NIH ODS or MedlinePlus.

4. Centella asiatica Extract — 125 mcg

Centella asiatica is the plant usually sold under the name gotu kola, and the label uses its aerial parts. It appears on two of the three marketing cards for this product and is absent from the third.

A search of NCCIH, NIH ODS and MedlinePlus turned up no consumer page for it.

5. Burdock Powder — 100 mcg

Burdock root is a food in several cuisines and a long-standing ingredient in traditional herbal blends. It is one of the three botanicals every one of this product’s three marketing cards agrees on, which on this product counts for something.

This desk found no federal consumer page for burdock.

6. Yerba Mate Extract — 100 mcg

Yerba mate is the leaf of Ilex paraguayensis, brewed as a drink across South America and sold as an extract in supplements. It contains caffeine. The label prints 100 mcg of the extract per serving, but it does not state how much caffeine that extract brings.

No consumer page on NCCIH, NIH ODS or MedlinePlus came up in this site’s search. FDA’s caffeine page is the relevant federal reading.

7. Stillingia Extract — 100 mcg

Stillingia is printed as an extract of the root of Stillingia sylvatica. It is the one label line that none of the three marketing cards names, so a reader who knew the product only from its cards would not know it was in the capsule. The panel is the only place it appears.

This site did not find a consumer page for it on the three federal sites it checks.

8. Olive Leaf Extract — 75 mcg

Olive leaf extract is one of two lines on this panel with a printed standardisation: 20% oleuropein. It is named on the “Key Botanicals in Every Capsule” card, and the label bears that card out.

As with most of this list, there is no federal consumer page this site can point to.

9. Cleavers Extract — 75 mcg

Cleavers is Galium aparine, and the panel says the whole herb is used. It shares its amount with olive leaf and, like olive leaf, appears on the Key Botanicals card and on neither of the others.

It has no federal consumer page that this site could locate.

10. Ginger Powder — 50 mcg

Ginger is printed as powdered root. It is named on the “Powered by Traditional Botanicals” card, and a piece of ginger also sits in the product photograph, beside lemon, mint and three kinds of berry that are not on the label. Of everything in that picture, ginger is the only plant the panel lists.

NCCIH has a consumer page on ginger, and this site points to it rather than paraphrasing it: NCCIH on ginger.

11. Echinacea purpurea Powder — 25 mcg

Echinacea closes the panel with its smallest amount: powdered leaf, stem and flower of Echinacea purpurea. It appears on the Powered by Traditional Botanicals card.

NCCIH’s echinacea page is most useful here for its safety notes. It says echinacea can cause allergic reactions, which may be severe, and digestive side effects, and that it may interact with some medicines, including immunosuppressants, and with caffeine. Yerba mate, a caffeine source, is on the same label; the side effects page covers what that means in practice.

The card below is the seller’s “Inside Lymph Savior” card. It sets six plants around the bottle, the first six lines of the label, under the heading six named ingredients. The label lists eleven. Nothing on the card contradicts the panel; it simply names fewer plants, and the five it leaves out are stillingia, olive leaf, cleavers, ginger and echinacea.

NIH’s Office of Dietary Supplements puts the general problem in one sentence — “Determining the quality of a botanical dietary supplement product from its label is difficult.” — and a complete panel does not change that. It tells you what is meant to be in the capsule and how much; it cannot tell you how the plant material was sourced or tested.