The Indian shilajit market has exploded in the last three years, growing roughly four-fold since 2022. What used to be a regional remedy found in Himalayan villages is now sold in jars, capsules, sachets, and even gummies — by hundreds of brands competing for attention. The problem? Most buyers don’t know what to look for on the label, and the label often doesn’t tell them.
A 2014 study published in Phytotherapy Research reviewed 22 commercial shilajit samples in India and found that multiple exceeded safe thresholds for heavy metals like lead, arsenic, and mercury. A more recent 2025 paper in Food and Chemical Toxicology added thallium contamination to the list of metals to watch — a metal that wasn’t even on standard Indian testing panels until last year. The AYUSH Ministry has tightened its scrutiny of dietary supplement claims, and FSSAI is increasingly auditing wellness brands that make health claims without supporting lab data. The lesson is uncomfortable but clear — knowing how to read a Certificate of Analysis (COA) is no longer optional for the Indian wellness buyer. It’s basic protection.
Here are the five lab markers that separate genuine, safe shilajit from marketing fluff.
1. Fulvic acid percentage — and the testing method
Pure shilajit is rich in fulvic acid, the low-molecular-weight molecule responsible for its mineral-carrying properties. In Ayurvedic terms, fulvic acid is what gives shilajit its yogavahi function — the classical concept of a carrier substance that ferries other compounds across cell membranes. Modern chemistry validates this: fulvic acid’s small molecular weight and water-solubility let it transport minerals like magnesium, zinc, and iron that would otherwise pass through unabsorbed.
The AYUSH Ministry reference range for genuine shilajit is 60–80% fulvic acid. But that single number depends entirely on how it was measured. The older spectrophotometric method (Folin–Ciocalteu) tends to over-report fulvic content by 10–20% because it captures humic acid contamination as well. The newer HPLC method with reference standards is far more specific. When you read a COA, look for HPLC as the testing method. A reading below 50% suggests dilution with humic acid filler. Below 30% is functionally inert as a mineral carrier — you’re paying for an inactive product.
2. Heavy metals — the four AYUSH limits
Heavy metals get into shilajit through a few documented pathways: harvesting from lower-altitude regions near industrial activity, contamination during the shodhana purification process, or storage in non-food-grade containers that leach contaminants over time. This is why sourcing transparency matters as much as the lab results themselves. The Indian Pharmacopoeia and IS 15481 specify firm limits on heavy metal content in shilajit:
- Lead: less than 10 ppm
- Arsenic: less than 3 ppm
- Mercury: less than 1 ppm
- Cadmium: less than 0.3 ppm
The gold-standard testing method is ICP-MS (inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry), which can detect metals at parts-per-billion levels. If a brand reports heavy metal results using a less sensitive method like AAS (atomic absorption spectroscopy), the numbers are not directly comparable. The 2025 thallium-contamination finding from Food and Chemical Toxicology argues for adding a fifth metal to the panel — worth asking your brand whether they include it. A brand that has nothing to hide will share the full ICP-MS scan, not just selected metals.
3. Microbial contamination panel
Any genuine shilajit COA should test for aerobic bacteria count, yeasts and molds, and pathogens like E. coli and Salmonella. The Indian Pharmacopoeia specifies maximum limits per gram for each. Microbial contamination in shilajit typically points to one of two problems: inadequate shodhana purification (the classical cleansing process), or contamination during post-purification handling. Beyond acute GI risks like food poisoning, mold contamination can introduce mycotoxins — fungal compounds that don’t break down in normal cooking or processing and have cumulative liver and kidney effects with long-term exposure. This section is often overlooked by buyers, but contamination here points to broader processing hygiene problems — which usually means other corners were cut too. A COA without a microbial section is incomplete.
4. Form: Resin > Capsule > Powder
Every published human clinical trial on shilajit — Pandit 2016 in Andrologia, Keller 2019 in the Journal of the International Society of Sports Nutrition, Biswas 2010 — used purified resin form. Not capsules. Not powders. Capsules introduce fillers like gum acacia, cellulose, and magnesium stearate, and powders may be blended with carrier substrates or extracted in ways that aren’t standardised against the original resin’s potency. Fillers also throw off bioavailability calculations — a 500 mg capsule might actually contain 250 mg of shilajit equivalent, but you’d have no way to know without the encapsulation specification.
If a brand sells capsule or powder form, two fair questions to ask:
- What is the resin-equivalent dose per capsule?
- Was the fulvic acid percentage measured pre- or post-encapsulation?
If the brand can’t answer either clearly, treat the product as unverified.
5. Recent batch date and accredited lab
A COA dated more than 12 months ago is stale. Brands manufacturing in volume produce new batches every few weeks; an old COA may not reflect what’s in the jar you’re about to buy. Sourcing regions, harvester chains, and purification protocols can all drift between batches, and a year-old COA could be from material harvested before any of those changes. Ask for the current batch’s report.
The testing lab matters too. Look for NABL accreditation (India’s National Accreditation Board for Testing and Calibration Laboratories) or international accreditation from Eurofins, SGS, or Intertek. These accreditation bodies require labs to demonstrate measurement traceability and audit history. A lab name you’ve never heard of, or one that doesn’t appear on accreditation databases, is a flag worth investigating before purchase.
A simple buyer protocol
You don’t need to memorise lab chemistry to protect yourself. Use this four-question checklist before any shilajit purchase, online or in-store:
- Can the brand email you the current batch’s COA within 24 hours? If no, walk away.
- Does the COA show HPLC fulvic acid percentage AND ICP-MS heavy metal results? If only one of those is present, ask why.
- Is the testing lab NABL-accredited or internationally recognised? Check the lab name on the accreditation body’s website.
- Does the brand publish sourcing details — altitude, region, harvester chain, shodhana method? Vague “Himalayan origin” claims without specifics are a soft flag.
Brands that publish Eurofins-tested shilajit COAs publicly — without making you ask — make this verification effortless. The same standard applies regardless of brand: the lab paperwork is the gating signal, not the marketing.
The bottom line
Shilajit can be a genuinely useful Rasayana addition for many healthy adults, with real RCT data behind dose ranges of 250–500 mg per day. But the category has firm contraindications too: pregnancy, breastfeeding, hemochromatosis (iron-overload disorder), active gout, and concurrent use of lithium or testosterone replacement therapy all warrant a conversation with your doctor before starting. What you take matters more than whether you take it. Spending ten minutes verifying a Certificate of Analysis before purchase avoids 95% of the heavy-metal and counterfeit risks the category is known for.
Your wellness journey is too important to leave to brand claims and Instagram videos. Read the lab paperwork. Ask the questions. The good brands will respect you for it.