Comparing Olive Leaf Extract brands

It is impossible to make a comparison with brands whose only contribution to their product is the design of their label. These days the product most often chosen for comparison is the Olive Leaf Extract.  However, the question we have is how do you compare competitors who purchase their extract from others, usually brokers of  overseas (ie. China) raw materials.

While there are over a hundred brands of Olive Leaf Extract, we only know of a couple that produce their own extract themselves … and none of those grow their own olive trees. The brands who have their raw material purchased likely do not even know where it comes from or whether it is the same material each time their broker delivers a new supply.  Then there are those few who harvest their leaves and pick each leaf individually off the branches, before even beginning to process their extract.

This is a big reason that the FDA is now forcing supplement companies to run independent lab tests identifying the ingredients going into their bottles because of the history of low-grade watered-down adulterated raw ingredients being traded and resold worldwide. The end-user, the customer and their manufacturer really have no idea. It takes a very big investment in time and money to produce these products yourself.

Some companies just like to puff themselves up like puffer fish. They also like to claim crazy levels of oleuropein, which is not a measure of olive leaf potency – see oleuropein post on this subject – while not having a good idea what is really being sold in their own bottles. This is why we cannot compare other brands. This is also why I would prefer to find my puffer fish 50 feet below the surface rather than on the shelves of health food stores.