Panax Ginseng Multi — the man-shaped root, fifteen quiet partners, one daily focus ritual

There was a stretch of your working day, somewhere around two in the afternoon, that used to feel like the sharp end of the week. You did your hardest thinking, your best emails, your most cunning negotiations between two and four. Zinc contributes to normal cognitive function and pantothenic acid to normal mental performance.

This is a daytime formula. It is not a stimulant in the sense of an energy drink.

A small cream pot. Sixty vegan capsules inside. The serving is two capsules, taken in the morning or before a hard afternoon. Sixty capsules at one serving a day will last you a month.

A note up front. This formula contains 100mg of caffeine per two-capsule serving — slightly more than a small espresso, slightly less than a strong cup of filter coffee. It is a daytime bottle, not an evening one. It is not suitable for children, pregnant or breastfeeding women, or anyone who has been told by their doctor to limit caffeine. The full caveats sit at the end of this page; please read them before your first capsule.

In the mountain forests of Manchuria, Korea, and the Russian Far East, in soil so cold it freezes solid for half the year, a small woodland herb spends six to eight years quietly building its root. The plant above ground is unremarkable — a few leaves, a small cluster of pale berries. The root below is the prize. By year six it can resemble, with some imagination, a small human body — a torso, two arms, two legs, sometimes the suggestion of a face. The Chinese name is renshen, man-root. The English botanical name Panax comes from the Greek for "all-healing" — the same root as our word panacea.

The earliest written record dates from the Han dynasty, around 100 BC. By the eighteenth century the demand from the Chinese imperial court was so intense that wild Korean ginseng was being smuggled across the Manchurian border in convoys, and a single old root could cost more than gold by weight.

(That is one of the reasons our product line carries both. A different plant of the same family with a different chemistry. The two are sometimes confused on supermarket shelves. They are not interchangeable. We list each by its proper name, and explain the difference here so you know which is which.)

What does Panax ginseng actually do? The root's characteristic compounds are called ginsenosides. We use 1000mg of Korean Panax ginseng extract per two-capsule serving — a meaningful daily dose drawn from a tradition that has outlasted dynasties.

Bacopa monnieri (300mg per serving) is the small creeping herb known in Sanskrit as brahmi, named after Brahma, the creator. Used in Ayurvedic medicine for over two thousand years to support memory and concentration, it earns a quiet seat at the focus table.

Ginkgo biloba (300mg) is one of the oldest living plant species on Earth — fossil specimens 270 million years old are nearly indistinguishable from the leaves you can pick off a Ginkgo tree on a London street today.

Guarana (400mg) is the small red-and-black seed harvested from a climbing vine in the Brazilian Amazon, where the Tupi people have used it for centuries to fuel long days of hunting and trade. The seed is rich in caffeine, slow-released alongside its companion alkaloids and tannins.

L-theanine (100mg) is the amino acid responsible for the calm-but-alert quality of green tea — the reason a cup of tea feels different from a cup of coffee even at the same caffeine dose.

L-tyrosine (100mg) is the precursor to dopamine, noradrenaline and adrenaline — the brain's "go" chemistry, the same one we use in our pre-workout powder for the same reason.

Acetyl-L-carnitine (100mg) is a small molecule that shuttles fatty acids into mitochondria — the cell's energy factories. The acetyl form crosses the blood-brain barrier more readily than plain carnitine.

Brain tissue is largely fat. Each serving also contains choline 37 mg and DHA 50 mg from algae. Phosphatidylserine (8mg, soy-derived) is concentrated in brain cell membranes.

Niacin (B3) 10mg, pantothenic acid (B5) 8mg, folate 200µg, B12 400µg, zinc 3mg, iodine 45µg — the label-accurate spine of the formula. Each contributes to authorised wording around energy metabolism, normal psychological function, normal immune function, and normal cognitive function. B12 400 µg (16,000% NRV).

100 mg caffeine per serving, plus guarana.

Cinnamon (300mg), turmeric (212mg), rosemary (100mg), green tea leaf (200mg) and black pepper (10mg) round out the formula — kitchen-garden spices that have travelled with humans for thousands of years.

Sixteen ingredients, one capsule shell, two-capsule serving. The thinking is layered: a five-thousand-year-old Korean root at the centre; three traditional focus plants around it; an amino-acid trio that pairs caffeine with calm; a structural-fats group for the brain's own architecture; a B-vitamin spine; and a few kitchen-garden notes for synergy and complexity.

This is not a drug. It will not turn a tired Tuesday into a sharp one in twenty minutes the way a strong coffee can. What we have tried to build is a daily ritual — a measured caffeine envelope, with a careful set of partners around it — that respects the way the brain actually works.

Two capsules with a glass of water, in the morning or before a focused afternoon. For best results, take 45 minutes before food or 90 minutes after. Do not exceed six capsules per day. Do not take in the evening — the caffeine will affect your sleep.

Be patient with it.

This is a food supplement — it complements a varied diet, doesn't replace one, and is not intended to alter any medical condition. Contains caffeine — 100mg per two-capsule serving. Not recommended for children, pregnant or breastfeeding women, or anyone advised by their doctor to limit caffeine. Speak to your GP or pharmacist if you take blood-thinning medication (ginkgo can have a mild additive effect), antidepressants, or medication for mood, blood pressure, blood sugar or thyroid. Contains soy (phosphatidylserine and phosphatidylcholine). Stop seven to ten days before any planned surgery.

Suitable for vegetarians and vegans. Kosher and halal-approved. Keep cool, dry and sealed; out of reach of children. Do not exceed the recommended dose.

A man-shaped root from a Korean forest, fifteen quiet partners, and a daily focus ritual that has earned its place across continents and centuries.

— Vitadefence