Turkesterone and the Liver and Kidneys: Is It Safe?

Anyone who has used oral anabolic steroids, or read about them, knows that the liver is often the first organ to suffer. Because turkesterone is marketed as a "natural anabolic", many people reasonably ask whether it carries similar risks for the liver and kidneys. Our editors examined what is known about the toxicology of ecdysteroids and the gaps that remain.

Why the question arises

Turkesterone belongs to the ecdysteroids, compounds that insects use as moulting hormones and that some plants, such as Ajuga turkestanica, produce in large amounts. Their structure resembles that of vertebrate steroid hormones, which is one reason for safety concerns.

Liver toxicity from oral anabolic-androgenic steroids is linked mainly to the 17-alpha-alkylation of those synthetic molecules, a modification that allows them to survive first-pass metabolism. Ecdysteroids do not have this modification and do not appear to act through the androgen receptor.

This distinction is important: structural similarity alone does not predict the same toxicity. Different steroid-like molecules can have very different effects on liver cells and on the kidneys.

Still, absence of a known mechanism is not proof of safety, so it is worth looking at the actual data.

What animal and toxicology data show

Most toxicology data come from research on 20-hydroxyecdysone (ecdysterone), the most studied ecdysteroid. Reviews by Lafont and Dinan noted that ecdysteroids show very low acute toxicity in mammals, with lethal doses in rodents far above any realistic human intake.

Animal studies have generally not shown liver damage at moderate doses, and some experimental work has even suggested protective effects on liver metabolism and on blood glucose and lipids. These findings are preliminary and should not be read as health benefits in humans.

Ecdysteroids are metabolised and excreted relatively quickly, partly through the gut and partly in urine. No specific nephrotoxicity has been described in the published animal data reviewed.

Turkesterone itself has much less data than ecdysterone. Much of the older work came from Soviet-era research that is difficult to access and evaluate by current standards.

Human data and clinical development

Human studies are few. In the 10-week trial by Isenmann and colleagues, young men took ecdysterone-containing supplements during resistance training, and the authors reported no adverse changes in markers of liver or kidney function.

Interest in 20-hydroxyecdysone as a pharmaceutical candidate has also produced some clinical safety data. Dinan and co-authors reviewed its development for muscle-wasting and metabolic conditions and described it as well tolerated in early-phase trials, although these were controlled studies using pharmaceutical-grade material.

There are no published controlled trials that specifically assess the safety of turkesterone in people. Commercial products also vary widely; analyses have found that some contain far less than the labelled amount, while others may contain other ecdysteroids.

A useful reference here is testosterone enanthate 250 kaufen.

From a regulatory perspective, turkesterone is sold in the UK as a food supplement and has not undergone the safety evaluation required for medicines.

The wider issue: supplements and liver injury

Even if pure turkesterone is low in toxicity, the real-world risk depends on what is actually in the capsule. In the United States, the Drug-Induced Liver Injury Network found that herbal and dietary supplements accounted for a growing share of liver injury cases, with bodybuilding supplements being a prominent category, as reviewed by Navarro and colleagues.

Many of those cases involved products contaminated with, or deliberately spiked with, anabolic steroids. A "natural" label does not exclude this possibility, which is why third-party testing matters.

Warning signs of liver injury include jaundice (yellowing of skin or eyes), dark urine, pale stools, itching, nausea and pain under the right ribs. Signs of kidney problems include reduced urine output, swelling of the legs and unusual tiredness.

Anyone who notices these symptoms while taking a supplement should stop it and seek medical advice promptly, taking the product packaging with them.

• People with existing liver or kidney disease should avoid turkesterone.
• Avoid combining it with alcohol excess or other potentially liver-toxic products.
• Choose products with independent testing for identity and contaminants.
• Consider baseline and follow-up blood tests (liver enzymes, creatinine) with your GP if you plan longer use.

Editorial conclusions

Available animal data on ecdysteroids suggest very low toxicity and no consistent harm to the liver or kidneys, and short human studies on ecdysterone have not raised red flags.

For turkesterone specifically, however, human safety data are essentially absent, long-term data do not exist, and product quality is inconsistent.

The most realistic danger for the liver comes not from the ecdysteroid itself but from contaminated or mislabelled supplements, so independent testing and medical monitoring are sensible for anyone choosing to use it.

We also recommend our articles on how to read liver function tests, on the history of laxogenin and other "natural anabolics", and on turkesterone during a cutting phase.

References

1. Lafont R, Dinan L. Practical uses for ecdysteroids in mammals including humans: an update. J Insect Sci. 2003;3:7.
2. Dinan L, Lafont R. Effects and applications of arthropod steroid hormones (ecdysteroids) in mammals. J Endocrinol. 2006;191(1):1–8.
3. Dinan L, Dioh W, Veillet S, Lafont R. 20-Hydroxyecdysone, from plant extracts to clinical use: therapeutic potential for the treatment of neuromuscular, cardio-metabolic and respiratory diseases. Biomedicines. 2021;9(5):492.
4. Isenmann E, Ambrosio G, Joseph JF, et al. Ecdysteroids as non-conventional anabolic agent: performance enhancement by ecdysterone supplementation in humans. Arch Toxicol. 2019;93(7):1807–1816.
5. Navarro VJ, Khan I, Björnsson E, et al. Liver injury from herbal and dietary supplements. Hepatology. 2017;65(1):363–373.
6. Báthori M, Tóth N, Hunyadi A, et al. Phytoecdysteroids and anabolic-androgenic steroids — structure and effects on humans. Curr Med Chem. 2008;15(1):75–91.