Magnesium stearate is a white granular compound used as a lubricant in the production of medicines, food supplements, and health products. It is approved by the FDA and is derived from palm oil, coconut oil, or cottonseed oil. However, there are concerns about its widespread use and potential unknown toxic effects.
Magnesium stearate is a compound that is chemically formed by combining stearic acid, a naturally occurring waxy substance in vegetable oil or animal fat, with a magnesium ion, which is an electron that has lost or gained an electrical charge. This causes the magnesium stearate to precipitate or condense to form a magnesium salt. This salt is granular and white in color, unlike uncombined stearic acid, also called octadecanoic acid, which is a clear, colorless liquid.
Widely used, magnesium stearate is a key ingredient in the production of medicines, food supplements, and health products such as vitamins. It has been approved by the US government Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for use as a food additive, supplement tablet supplement, and also as a coating on medical capsules and medical tablets. Food and drug manufacturers are in high demand because it is such an effective lubricant.
Magnesium stearate has gained such wide use due, in part, to FDA certification of its essentially harmless chemical makeup. Current major sources include palm oil, coconut oil, or cottonseed oil, allowing for certifications indicating that supplements using the compound are acceptable for ingestion by vegetarians. However, there is some concern that cottonseed oil contains a high degree of pesticide contamination, making it unsuitable for use in dietary supplements. Powder supplement labels simply tend to list magnesium stearate as an inert ingredient that does not react with other active ingredients and will not impede the desired effects.
Magnesium stearate is also widely used as a tablet lubricant for prescription drugs, as it not only helps prevent tablets from sticking in the bottle, but its coating helps make the tablets easier to swallow. Adding this compound to solid tablets and capsules also helps them separate more easily once swallowed, and helps to more predictably release the active ingredients from the tablet or capsule. The ability to predict release time is an important factor in prescribing drugs for medical conditions, since for a drug to be effective it must be capable of producing the desired results within a predetermined period of time.
Although magnesium stearate has been accepted as a relatively innocuous food additive in its own right, some debate has arisen about the unknown toxic cumulative effects of such widespread use of this substance, which, according to some reports, is present in approximately 95% of food supplements. Concerns have also been raised regarding as yet unknown interactions that may develop from its increasing use in ingested products.
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