10 replies to this topic

[Psychonaut]

Thought it is worth sharing that recently I received suspected contaminated d-ribose from NOW, which upon opening has a distinct smell of rubbing alcohol, as opposed to the normally mild brown sugar smell it should have.


I also found two reviews on amazon stating the exact same thing,

http://www.amazon.co...howViewpoints=0

Have next to no knowledge about chemistry but I think there is some link to ribose and alcohol during the processing?

Just very glad I was able to recognise there was something seriously wrong by the smell of it and did not overlook it.

Seems the batch is from around mid to late this year.

[xEva]

There were 2 reports here of people getting seriously sick after taking d-ribose and now this (see this thread). What's good in d-ribose to justify the risk?

Edited by xEva, 24 December 2012 - 03:29 AM.

[Psychonaut]

There were 2 reports here of people getting seriously sick after taking d-ribose and now this (see this thread). What's good in d-ribose to justify the risk?

I did just partly post this because I was reading that thread, but as niner has stated it seems to likely be some connection between a low carb diet and d-ribose use.

I am on the back end of 10 years of ME/CFS and found d-ribose useful for energy and reducing my sugar cravings, even though I try to eat a low carb lean high protein diet I am sort of happy after reading those experiences that I never really go full ketosis while on d-ribose, because I can not help but still eat sugars and basic carbs.

Many other people with ME/CFS find d-ribose useful for similar reasons, also seems to help reduce muscle soreness for some but what is a slight worry is many with this condition also lean towards low carb diets.

Does make one wonder though if there is a processing problem with d-ribose in general across the board and how safe the supplement actually is, or whether this NOW batch was just a contaminant; would almost hope it is just the latter.

Edited by Psychonaut, 24 December 2012 - 07:44 AM.

[Luminosity]

I believe that NOW supplements often don't contain what they say they do and are usually ineffective. I will not buy them.

Edited by Luminosity, 30 December 2012 - 06:28 AM.

[lifebuddy]

NOW have a lot of rules that they have to follow. They test their products in labs, are visited by the FDA regularly, keep logs of batches etc. They do manufacture their stuff in China (like most supplement companies), and I guess that tests don't always catch everything. You should report the contamination to them and to the FDA asap.

[Psychonaut]

My supplier got a reply back from NOW on this issue from a product specialist, apparently there has been a fair few complaints about this. They tested the product for solvents, talked to their producers, apparently it is just because of a change in their production methods and the product is fine.

So it is just someone along the line trying to cut costs probably and destroying what was a very nice sweet tasting supplement that was great in shakes, I liked using it to sweeten green ice tea and also mix it with an electrolyte powder as well; now it is just basically unusable and nauseating.

Hopefully they realise this and make their producers go back to their old methods.

Agree as well that NOW from my experience is a very reliable supplement company.

[Psychonaut]

If anyone knows of a brand that still has the old sweet brown sugar smell and taste I would love to know because I will never use this product again as it stands.

Have recently bought some healthy origins d-ribose and found it also had that rubbing alcohol/metho smell although it was nowhere near as bad as the NOW one. Have also ordered some Jarrow so will see how that goes but I am suspecting all will have the same problem now.

Edited by Psychonaut, 09 January 2013 - 12:15 AM.

[zorba990]

Same problem with a recent batch - mine smells like acetone. To say the product is fine is ridiculous...

[abelard lindsay]

I got some bad idebenone once. Smelled like solvent. Threw it out. Any bad smells (unless it's Sodium Butyrate!) are a definite sign to just throw the bottle out.

[zorba990]

They issued a refund. I always give everything the sniff test first but this smell is detectable from 3 feet away.

[Luminosity]

NOW doesn't have a lot of rules to follow. Their products are fraudulent.