The formula
Horse Fuel ingredients: all seven, with amounts
Seven actives, each with its own amount printed beside it. This page takes them in panel order, says what each one is, quotes what a source we actually opened says about it, and prints the caution that comes with it. Four of the seven are present at one ten-thousandth of a gram.
The panel itemises everything, which is better than a proprietary blend and rarer than it should be. It is also what lets you see that fenugreek, maca, tribulus and horny goat weed are 100 mcg each — 0.4 mg for all four. The only active present in a quantity the research would recognise is vitamin D3 at 84 mcg, which is 84% of the adult daily upper limit.
What an itemised panel tells you
Most supplements in this category use a proprietary blend: one combined weight, a list of names underneath, and no way to know the split. Four of the six products this desk has covered did exactly that. Horse Fuel does not, and the difference is worth stating before anything critical follows.
An itemised panel means the manufacturer has published the amount of every active. You do not have to take anyone's word for the formula, you do not have to guess whether the headline ingredient is 100 mg or a trace, and you can check every figure against a reference table yourself. That is the whole point of the panel and it is being used properly here.
It also means the arithmetic is available to you, which is the rest of this page.
The bars are on a logarithmic scale, because a linear one would draw the product’s own bar as an invisible line. Every figure in the lower rows is a real published quantity: 257 mg is the tribulus intake the NIH Office of Dietary Supplements records as studied for safety in an 80 kg adult, and a teaspoon of maca powder is the amount named in the case report Memorial Sloan Kettering cites. Horse Fuel contains 0.1 mg of each.
Micrograms, milligrams and grams
A gram is what a paperclip weighs. A milligram is a thousandth of that. A microgram is a thousandth of a milligram, or a millionth of a gram. The four botanicals on this panel are listed at 100 micrograms each — 0.1 mg — and 0.4 mg for all four together. A single grain of table salt weighs roughly 0.6 mg.
The three nutrients
Vitamin D3, sodium and boron. These are the rows with real quantities, and one of them is the most consequential number on the bottle.
1. Vitamin D3 — as cholecalciferol
84 mcg on the panel · % DV 420%
Vitamin D3 at 84 mcg is the only row on this panel that is present in a quantity the research would recognise. It is 5.6 times the RDA and 84% of the adult upper limit in a single gummy. That is not automatically a problem — many people are low in vitamin D, and 4,000 IU daily products are sold widely. It becomes a problem if you also take a multivitamin, a separate vitamin D, or a cod liver oil, because those stack and the bottle carries no warning that they do.
What the source says. “Very high levels of vitamin D in your blood (greater than 375 nmol/L or 150 ng/mL) can cause nausea, vomiting, muscle weakness, confusion, pain, loss of appetite, dehydration, excessive urination and thirst, and kidney stones.” RDA for adult men is 15 mcg (600 IU). The Tolerable Upper Intake Level for adults is 100 mcg (4,000 IU) a day..
Caution. No upper-limit note appears anywhere on this label. If you take another vitamin D product, add the two together before you start.
2. Sodium — as sodium citrate
10 mg on the panel · % DV <7% (should read 0.4%)
Ten milligrams of sodium is nutritionally irrelevant — a slice of bread has roughly fifteen times as much. It is on the panel because sodium citrate is being used as an acidity regulator in the gummy base, not because anybody thinks you need it. The reason it is worth a paragraph is the percentage beside it: the label prints “<7%” where the arithmetic gives 0.4%.
What the source says. “Sodium: 2300mg” The FDA Daily Value for sodium is 2,300 mg..
Caution. None at this amount. The interest here is what the error says about how carefully the rest of the panel was checked.
3. Boron — as boron glycinate
7 mg on the panel · % DV * (no Daily Value established)
Boron is the second-largest active on this panel and the one people are least likely to have thought about. Seven milligrams is roughly five to eight times what an adult gets from food in a day. It sits inside the WHO’s acceptable range of 1 to 13 mg a day and at about a third of the 20 mg upper limit, so it is not an alarming number — but boron has no Daily Value because the Food and Nutrition Board found insufficient evidence to set one, and the NIH says plainly that no clear biological function for it has been identified in humans.
What the source says. “Boron is not classified as an essential nutrient for humans because research has not yet identified a clear biological function for boron.” No RDA, AI or EAR has been set. The Tolerable Upper Intake Level for adults is 20 mg a day. Median dietary intake is 0.87 to 1.35 mg a day..
Caution. Well under the 20 mg upper limit at one gummy a day. Doubling up on gummies would put a third of the day's ceiling into each dose.
The four botanicals
Fenugreek, maca, tribulus and horny goat weed. These are the four the product is marketed for, and they are listed at 100 mcg each. Every one is a 10:1 extract, so 100 mcg of it was drawn from roughly 1 mg of the raw plant.
4. Fenugreek Seed Extract 10:1 — Trigonella foenum-graecum L., seed
100 mcg on the panel · about 1 mg of raw plant at 10:1
Fenugreek is the ingredient in this category with the most name recognition, and its research file is about blood sugar and cholesterol rather than about men’s performance. Memorial Sloan Kettering’s monograph does not discuss testosterone or libido at all. What it does carry is a long do-not-take list: warfarin, SSRI antidepressants, cyclophosphamide, hormone-sensitive cancer and pregnancy, with case reports of anaphylaxis and severe coagulation failure. At 100 mcg of a 10:1 extract — one milligram of raw seed — none of that is likely to reach you, in either direction.
What the source says. “Fenugreek may help lower blood sugar and cholesterol levels, but data is limited and more studies are needed.” MSK's studied uses are blood sugar and cholesterol. Neither MSK nor NCCIH addresses testosterone or libido..
Caution. MSK lists warfarin, SSRIs, cyclophosphamide, hormone-sensitive cancers and pregnancy under do not take. NCCIH says fenugreek is not safe in pregnancy above food amounts and that its use has been linked to increased risks of birth defects.
5. Maca Root Extract 10:1 — Lepidium meyenii Walp., root
100 mcg on the panel · about 1 mg of raw plant at 10:1
Maca is the ingredient on this panel with the closest fit to what the bottle is sold for — it is used traditionally in Peru to support fertility and sexual performance, and Memorial Sloan Kettering lists improving energy and sexual desire among its purported uses. It also says preliminary findings only, mixed results on semen quality, and limited evidence on sexual dysfunction. The doses behind even that limited evidence are grams of maca powder. This gummy contains 100 micrograms of a concentrate.
What the source says. “systematic reviews have deemed evidence for improving sexual dysfunction... to be limited” MSK describes traditional use for fertility and sexual performance and calls the evidence limited. Studies use maca powder by the teaspoon or gram..
Caution. MSK notes maca may interfere with testosterone immunoassays, which matters if you are being tested, and advises caution with hormone-sensitive cancers and in pregnancy.
6. Tribulus Terrestris Extract 10:1 — printed as Trigonella foenum-graecum L. — see finding 2
100 mcg on the panel · about 1 mg of raw plant at 10:1
This is the row that carries both of this label’s largest problems at once. The Latin name beside it is fenugreek’s. And the ingredient itself is the one with the most direct verdict against it: the NIH Office of Dietary Supplements, reviewing supplements for exercise and athletic performance, records the proposed mechanism — raising testosterone and luteinizing hormone to promote muscle growth — and then records the finding, which is no effect on strength, lean body mass, or sex hormone levels. MSK adds that human studies of testosterone gave mixed results and that a clinical trial found no significant changes in muscle strength or mass. The safety data ODS cites runs to 3.21 mg per kilogram per day, which for an 80 kg man is about 257 mg. This gummy has 0.1 mg.
What the source says. “No effect on strength, lean body mass, or sex hormone levels” The NIH Office of Dietary Supplements reviewed tribulus for athletic performance and reported no effect. Safety studied up to 3.21 mg per kg of body weight a day..
Caution. MSK records case reports of severe liver, kidney and neurological toxicity and of priapism, and says prostate cancer patients should consult their physicians before using tribulus.
7. Horny Goat Weed Extract 10:1 — printed as Epimedium Brevicomum Maxim, leaf
100 mcg on the panel · about 1 mg of raw plant at 10:1
Epimedium has the longest traditional history of anything on this panel and the thinnest modern evidence. MSK’s summary is one sentence long: traditionally used to treat fatigue and sexual problems, and more studies are needed. The species MSK lists are Epimedium sagittatum, Epimedium grandiflorum and Epimedium brevicornum. This label prints Epimedium Brevicomum — brevicomum rather than brevicornum, with the species name capitalised, which is not how a binomial is written.
What the source says. “Epimedium is traditionally used in herbal formulas for sexual dysfunction. More studies are needed to verify such effects.” MSK describes traditional use for fatigue and sexual problems and says more studies are needed..
Caution. MSK says do not take epimedium if you have heart disease, citing a patient who developed a rapid irregular heartbeat, or if you take medications metabolised by CYP3A4 or aromatase inhibitors.
Where that leaves the product
Three of the seven actives are present in quantities that mean something, and only one of those three is there for a reason the marketing talks about — and it is the one the marketing does not mention.
What this panel does well
- Every active is itemised with its own amount. Nothing is hidden behind a blend total.
- The extract ratio is printed for all four botanicals, so you can work back to a raw-plant equivalent.
- The plant part is given for three of the four botanicals.
- Vitamin D3 is present at a dose that is genuinely active, and its percentage is calculated correctly.
- The serving size is one gummy, so there is no dosing arithmetic to get wrong.
What it does not
- The four marketed botanicals total 0.4 mg, which is two to four orders of magnitude below the research.
- There is no Other Ingredients list, so there is no allergen information and no way to know the gummy base.
- The tribulus row carries fenugreek's Latin name and no plant part.
- The sodium percentage is printed as <7% where the arithmetic gives 0.4%.
- Nothing warns that one gummy is 84% of the adult daily ceiling for vitamin D.
- No standardisation or marker content is published for any botanical.
If you want any of these four botanicals at a researched amount, single-ingredient capsules exist in the hundreds of milligrams and are not expensive. That is a recommendation against the product this site sells, and it is here because it is true.
How to read an extract ratio without being impressed by it
All four botanicals on this panel are 10:1 extracts, and the ratio is the piece of information buyers most often misread in the flattering direction.
A 10:1 extract means ten parts of raw plant were reduced to one part of concentrate. That is a genuine process and it does concentrate the plant's constituents. What it does not do is change the arithmetic you are looking at: 100 mcg of a 10:1 extract still started as about 1 mg of plant, and 1 mg of fenugreek seed is not a dose of fenugreek by any measure anybody has published.
There are two questions to ask of any extract ratio. The first is what the raw-plant equivalent works out to, which is a multiplication. The second is what the extract is standardised to — which compound, at what percentage — because that is what actually determines how much of the studied constituent is present. A ratio without a standardisation is a statement about concentration, not about activity.
No standardisation figure is published for any of the four botanicals on this label. That is on the missing list, and it means the ratio is the only characterisation available.
If you want these ingredients properly
This section argues against the product this site sells, and it is here because the ingredients page would be incomplete without it.
Each of the four botanicals is available as a single-ingredient supplement in the amounts the research uses, usually for very little money. If one of them is what you came for, that is where to get it — and going that route also gives you a dose you can change, a label you can compare against a study, and no other ingredients riding along.
- Maca is sold as a powder by the bag and as capsules in the hundreds of milligrams to grams. It is the ingredient on this panel with the closest fit to the product's stated purpose, and MSK still calls the evidence limited.
- Fenugreek is sold as seed, as a culinary spice and as standardised capsules. Note MSK's do-not-take list before buying it at a real dose: warfarin, SSRIs, cyclophosphamide, hormone-sensitive cancer and pregnancy.
- Tribulus is widely sold at 500-1,000 mg. Before buying it, read the NIH line in full: “No effect on strength, lean body mass, or sex hormone levels.” A researched dose of something that has been tested and did not work is not obviously better than a tiny dose of it.
- Horny goat weed is sold standardised to icariin, which is the only version of it worth comparing against anything. MSK's caution about heart disease and CYP3A4 applies at real doses.
- Vitamin D3 at 4,000 IU is sold everywhere, usually with an upper-limit note this label does not carry.
We would rather you bought one of those and thought well of this desk than bought six bottles here on a misunderstanding. That is not modesty; it is the only position from which the rest of this site is worth reading.
Seven actives, all published
Thirty gummies, one a day, every active itemised — and the four botanicals the product is sold for come to 0.4 mg between them. The live price and the return terms are both shown on the seller’s checkout screen.
Listing return terms · Questions first? Call +1 (302) 200-3480