Why 500 mg of resin is not 500 mg of capsule

Most people assume milligrams are milligrams. With shilajit, they are not. The number on the front of the jar tells you the weight of the material in one serving. It does not tell you how concentrated that material is.

Raw resin is close to whole shilajit. It carries water, minerals, and the full mix of compounds found in the source material. Most capsules and gummies contain a standardised extract instead. Extraction removes a lot of the bulk and concentrates what is left. So the same weight of extract can carry several times the active markers of the same weight of resin.

This is why so many people feel a change when they switch forms and assume the new brand is “stronger” or “weaker”. Often the dose simply moved without anyone noticing. The converter above makes that movement visible.

How this converter calculates your dose

There is no official conversion standard for shilajit, so this tool does not pretend there is one. Instead it shows you the same dose measured two different ways, and explains both.

Method 1: matched on fulvic acid (the headline result)

Fulvic acid is the marker most brands print on the label and most extracts are standardised to. It is the only figure you can usually compare across two different products. The maths is simple:

This is the more useful of the two results, because it follows the active marker rather than the packaging.

Method 2: matched on label weight

This is the naive conversion most people do in their head — 400 mg becomes 400 mg. The tool shows it deliberately, so you can see the gap between the two numbers. That gap is the error you would have made.

Why both numbers matter

Fulvic acid is not the only thing in shilajit. Research also points to dibenzo-α-pyrones and trace minerals as relevant compounds, and a heavily processed extract may not carry the same full profile as resin. So the fulvic-matched result is the better guide, but it is still a simplification. Anyone who tells you there is one exact conversion ratio is guessing.

Shilajit forms compared

Each form has a real trade-off. None of them is automatically best — the right one depends on whether you value dose accuracy, convenience, or knowing exactly what you bought.

Gummies deserve a specific warning. Reviews of retail gummy labels repeatedly find well under 100 mg of actual shilajit per piece, which is far below the amounts used in human trials. If your converter result asks for five or more gummies a day to match your old dose, that is the tool telling you the product is under-dosed, not that you should eat five gummies.

The fulvic acid percentage problem

This is the part most shilajit pages skip, and it directly affects whether your converted dose is meaningful.

Many resin jars advertise 60%, 70% or even 80% fulvic acid. Published analyses of genuine shilajit generally report far lower figures — commonly in the range of roughly 5% to 20% for natural material. A very high number on a resin label usually means one of three things:

• The test used a method that counts humic substances broadly, not fulvic acid specifically.
• The product is a low-altitude organic concentrate rather than true high-altitude shilajit.
• Fulvic acid has been added to the product to lift the number.

Standardised extracts used in capsules are a different case. Those are genuinely concentrated during manufacturing, so a figure around 50% can be legitimate for an extract even when it would be implausible for raw resin.

What doses did human research actually use?

The converter compares your result against 250–500 mg per day of purified shilajit. That band comes from the small number of published human trials, not from marketing.

• Testosterone, 90 days. A randomised, placebo-controlled trial in healthy men aged roughly 45–55 used 250 mg of purified shilajit twice a day and reported an increase in total testosterone versus placebo. It was a single, small study.
• Muscle strength and fatigue, 8 weeks. A controlled trial tested 250 mg and 500 mg per day. The 500 mg group showed the effect on fatigue-related strength decline; the 250 mg group did not.
• Safety review. A published review of purified shilajit concluded that processed, purified material appears well tolerated at these doses in the studies available, while raw unprocessed material carries contamination risk.

Two honest caveats. First, this evidence base is small — a handful of trials, often with modest numbers of participants, and some funded by ingredient manufacturers. Second, those trials used specific purified extracts under controlled conditions, not the retail resin or gummies most people buy. So 500 mg per day is best read as the top of what has been tested, not a target to aim for. More is not better here.

For a fuller breakdown of daily amounts and timing, see our guide on how much shilajit to take per day.

How to measure resin without guessing

Every “pea sized” or “rice grain” instruction is an approximation, and the error is larger than most people expect. A generous pea and a small pea can differ by 200 mg or more — which, at these dose sizes, is not a rounding error.

• Use a 0.001 g jeweller’s scale. They are inexpensive and remove the guesswork entirely. Weigh once, learn what your dose looks like, then eyeball it with confidence.
• Warm the spoon, not the resin. Running the spoon under warm water makes sticky resin release cleanly without heating the product itself.
• Weigh the jar instead. If you have no small scale, weigh the full jar, then divide by your intended number of days to check you are on track.
• Dissolve in warm, not boiling, water. Boiling water is unnecessary and may degrade heat-sensitive components.

Five mistakes people make when switching forms

1. Matching milligram for milligram. The single most common error, and the reason this tool exists.
2. Trusting a resin label claiming 70–80% fulvic acid. Feed an inflated percentage into any calculator and you will get an inflated result.
3. Assuming gummies match a resin dose. They usually do not come close.
4. Stacking forms. Taking resin in the morning and capsules at night can quietly double your intake. Convert first, then pick one form.
5. Jumping straight to the top of the range. Starting low for a week or two and then adjusting is the sensible approach with any new supplement.

Safety notes worth reading before you convert

Shilajit is a supplement, not a medicine, and it is not regulated like one in the US, UK, Canada or Australia. A few points matter more than the dose maths.

• Never use raw, unpurified shilajit. Unprocessed material has been found to carry heavy metals, mycotoxins and other contaminants. Purification is not optional.
• Iron content is a real consideration. Shilajit contains iron. If you have haemochromatosis, thalassaemia or any iron-overload condition, avoid it and speak to your doctor.
• Medication interactions are possible. Take particular care with blood pressure medicines, diabetes medicines, blood thinners and anything affected by mineral binding. Ask a pharmacist — that consultation is usually free.
• Not for pregnancy or breastfeeding. There is not enough safety data.
• Stop and seek advice if something feels wrong. Rash, stomach upset, dizziness or a racing heart are reasons to stop, not to push through.

This tool and this page provide general information only. They are not medical advice and they cannot account for your health history. Please speak to a qualified healthcare professional before starting shilajit or changing your dose — especially if you take prescription medicine or have an existing health condition. See our full disclaimer.

Frequently asked questions

Related reading on Find Shilajit

Sources and further reading

1. Pandit S, Biswas S, Jana U, De RK, Mukhopadhyay SC, Biswas TK. Clinical evaluation of purified Shilajit on testosterone levels in healthy volunteers. Andrologia. 2016;48(5):570–575. PubMed 26395129
2. Keller JL, Housh TJ, Hill EC, Smith CM, Schmidt RJ, Johnson GO. The effects of Shilajit supplementation on fatigue-induced decreases in muscular strength and serum hydroxyproline levels. J Int Soc Sports Nutr. 2019;16(1):3. PubMed 30728074
3. Stohs SJ. Safety and efficacy of shilajit (mumie, moomiyo). Phytotherapy Research. 2014;28(4):475–479. PubMed 23733436
4. Carrasco-Gallardo C, Guzmán L, Maccioni RB. Shilajit: a natural phytocomplex with potential procognitive activity. International Journal of Alzheimer’s Disease. 2012. PubMed 22482077
5. Agarwal SP, Khanna R, Karmarkar R, Anwer MK, Khar RK. Shilajit: a review. Phytotherapy Research. 2007;21(5):401–405. PubMed 17295385

Reviewed and updated: September 2026. We update this tool when new human research on shilajit dosing is published.