Maxorin: frequently asked questions

A capsule dietary supplement sold as “Male Performance Support*”. Thirty capsules a bottle, one a day, so a bottle is thirty days. That starred line is the only claim on the front panel; it names no mechanism and is followed by the FDA disclaimer. It is distributed for Maxorin, Aurora, CO 80011.

Three rows. Vitamin B3 (as Niacin) 20 mg, 125% of the Daily Value; Zinc (as Zinc Oxide) 11 mg, 100%; and a 570 mg Proprietary Blend naming six ingredients — L-citrulline, L-carnitine, pine bark, maca root, grape skin and saffron stigma extract — with no individual amounts. That is 601 mg of declared material, of which the blend is about 95%.

It is allowed, and the label follows the rule precisely. The FDA’s labeling guide requires the blend’s total weight on the same line as its name and the ingredients listed underneath “in descending order of predominance by weight”. Individual weights are required only for ingredients with an established Daily Value — which is exactly why niacin and zinc are itemised and the other six are not. It is the rule that lets 95% of a formula go unquantified.

From the descending-order requirement and nothing else. If six items are in descending order of weight and total 570 mg, the item in position n cannot weigh more than 570 divided by n — because if it did, the n items at or above it would already exceed the total. That gives 570, 285, 190, 142.5, 114 and 95 mg. None of those six figures is printed on the bottle and all six are forced by it.

A ceiling is the largest an ingredient can possibly be. It is not an amount. Saffron is last, so it cannot exceed 95 mg — and it could be one milligram. A blend can hold one ingredient at 565 mg and five at a milligram each, and this label would look identical. Every derived figure on this site is labelled as a bound wherever it appears, for exactly that reason.

No. The FDA’s Daily Value for niacin is 16 mg, so 20 mg is 125% — the printed percentage is arithmetically correct. The NIH’s Tolerable Upper Intake Level for adults from supplements is 35 mg, well above it. The flushing threshold for nicotinic acid is higher again: the NIH puts it at “thirty to 50 mg or more”. At 20 mg, flushing is unlikely.

The label does not say, and that is the narrow criticism. “Vitamin B3 (as Niacin)” covers two compounds that behave differently in a person: nicotinic acid, which flushes, and niacinamide, which does not. At this amount neither is likely to cause trouble. The consequence is for anyone adding this to something else containing niacin, who cannot tell which form they are adding to which.

It is the least absorbed of the common forms, and the label deserves credit for stating the form at all. The NIH compares them directly: absorption from zinc citrate or zinc gluconate is “approximately 61% in young adults; the absorption from supplements that contain zinc oxide is 50%”. The printed 11 mg / 100% is correct — a Daily Value percentage always describes content rather than uptake, on every zinc product.

The NIH’s position is the bluntest sentence in any source this site cites: “Healthy children and adults do not need to consume carnitine from food or supplements because the liver and kidneys synthesize sufficient amounts to meet daily needs.” Where it is studied for athletic performance the doses run to 1 to 4 grams, and the NIH calls that evidence mixed. The ceiling here is 285 mg, at most a quarter of the lowest studied dose.

Because there is nothing citable to put in one. L-citrulline, pine bark extract, maca root and saffron stigma extract return no monograph at the NIH Office of Dietary Supplements or at NCCIH under the names printed on this label. Absence of a monograph is absence of information, not evidence in either direction. This desk will not substitute a related source to fill the space, so those four entries conclude almost nothing.

No, and the distinction is the label’s virtue rather than its fault. The panel says Grape (Vitis vinifera) Skin Extract. The monograph a reader is most likely to find is NCCIH’s page on grape seed extract — a different part of the plant with a different chemistry, so research on one does not transfer to the other. Naming the plant part is good practice; it also means the obvious file does not apply.

Several things, and they should be said plainly. Both Daily Value percentages are arithmetically correct. The chemical form is given for both nutrients. The species and the plant part are printed for all four botanicals, which most labels in this trade do not bother with. The Other Ingredients line is complete. And the caution block is the fullest this desk has read in this batch. None of that was compulsory.

The label instruction is one sentence: “As a dietary supplement, take one (1) capsule daily.” There is no loading phase and no “take up to three daily” escalation. Storage: “Store this product in a cool dry place below 30°C (86°F).” Thirty capsules at one a day is thirty days a bottle, which is the arithmetic that decides which pack to buy.

In full, as printed: “Do not exceed recommended dose. Not for use for those under the age of 18 or pregnant or nursing mothers. Consult with a physician prior to use especially if you are taking a medication or have a medical condition.” The artwork also carries “KEEP OUT OF REACH OF CHILDREN”, “DO NOT USE IF SAFETY SEAL IS DAMAGED OR MISSING” and a storage line. That is more than this category usually prints.

The Other Ingredients line reads: Hypromellose (Vegetable Capsule), Microcrystalline Cellulose, Magnesium Stearate, Silicon Dioxide. Hypromellose is plant-derived cellulose rather than gelatin, so the capsule shell is not animal-derived. Microcrystalline cellulose is a bulking agent; magnesium stearate and silicon dioxide are flow agents. A complete four-item line is good practice and it is printed here without prompting.

There is no single-bottle pack. The published list is 2 bottles $178.00 ($89.00 each), 3 bottles $216.00 ($72.00 each) and 6 bottles $294.00 ($49.00 each) — $2.97, $2.40 and $1.63 a capsule. The smallest cheque you can write is $178.00, which is the figure to compare against a shelf that sells singles.

The two-bottle pack, which is the worst value per capsule of the three. Sixty capsules at one a day is sixty days, against a 60-day window that runs from purchase — the only pack that finishes inside it. Ninety capsules runs thirty days past the window; a hundred and eighty runs a hundred and twenty past it.

The published window is 60 days from purchase, as printed on the sales and information page. A claim is opened by calling +1 (323) 348-1373 with the order ID, the buyer pays return shipping with tracking, and the refund follows once the return is credited. Keep the order confirmation email: it carries the purchase date the whole window runs from.

Nothing supplied to this desk says. It is the largest gap in the buying terms, and it matters because the honest way to use this product — sixty capsules across sixty days — produces an opened bottle by definition. Settle it with the order desk on +1 (323) 348-1373 before you pay rather than on day sixty-one.

No dietary supplement is. The FDA states it plainly: “Under DSHEA, FDA does not have the authority to approve dietary supplements before they are marketed.” The label carries the standard disclaimer in full: “These statements have not been evaluated by the Food and Drug Administration. This product is not intended to diagnose, treat, cure or prevent any disease.”

One has a term behind it and three do not. The money-back mark corresponds to a published 60-day window, a returns address and refund timings. The GMP mark is a process standard for the factory that names no certifying body. The FDA-registered facility mark is an administrative list, not an inspection or an approval, and no registration number is given. The foreign and domestic ingredients mark is unusually candid and worth crediting. None of the three certification marks is printed on the label artwork itself.

Because the block supplied was layout copy. The pack gave 4.5 out of 5, 1,125 written reviews, 7,897 orders and 86% recommending. A second pack reached this desk in the same batch — a chewable oral-health tablet from a different company — carrying the same block with the figures changed: 4.6 out of 5, 925 reviews, 5,724 orders, the same wait line and the same eight-customer layout. The full account is on the about page.

Neither reached this desk as a document. The pack supplied a lot reference of MAX-26/MA-7896 and a certificate reference of MAX-7896-26-MA, both draft references rather than laboratory proof, and no testing laboratory is named anywhere. On this formula the request worth making is a CoA that reports the individual weights of the six blend constituents — the only figures the label withholds that somebody definitely knows.

Thirteen things, listed in full below this section. The one that matters most would cost six numbers and a single line of print: the amount of each ingredient in the 570 mg blend. After that: a standardisation for any of the four botanicals, which form of niacin the 20 mg is, a street address for the distributor, a country of manufacture, a certifying body for the GMP mark, and a legible best-before date.