Shilajit is everywhere on social media as a testosterone booster. The human evidence is one small trial of one branded extract, and the bigger issue for buyers is what else might be in the jar.
Shilajit's testosterone reputation rests mostly on one 2016 trial in about 75 healthy men aged 45 to 55, where 500 mg a day of a purified extract raised total testosterone by roughly 20% over 90 days. That's a promising but thin result that hasn't been independently replicated. Because shilajit is a mineral-rich resin, contamination with heavy metals is a real concern, so only buy purified products with published third-party test results.
Shilajit is a sticky, tar-like resin that seeps from rock in mountain ranges such as the Himalayas. It forms over long periods from decomposed plant material and is rich in fulvic acid and minerals. In Ayurvedic medicine it's used as a rasayana, a general rejuvenating tonic, and it's now sold as resin, capsules, tablets, drops and gummies.
Because it comes out of rock and soil, raw shilajit can carry whatever is in that environment, including toxic metals and microbes. That's why commercial products are supposed to be purified before sale, and why quality varies so much between brands.
Almost every testosterone claim for shilajit traces back to a single randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled trial published in Andrologia in 2016. Researchers in Kolkata, India gave healthy men aged 45 to 55 either 250 mg of purified shilajit twice a day or a placebo for 90 days.
According to the abstract, the shilajit group had significantly higher total testosterone, free testosterone and DHEA-S than placebo, while LH and FSH (the pituitary hormones that signal the testes) were reportedly maintained. Industry coverage of the study in NutraIngredients reported 75 participants and increases of about 20% in total testosterone and 19% in free testosterone after 90 days.
Two other details are worth knowing. The same coverage noted that the pituitary hormones were initially maintained and then fell while testosterone stayed raised, which the study wasn't designed to explain. And the study measured hormones, not outcomes men actually care about, such as libido, erections, strength or fatigue.
A 20% average rise from a normal baseline is modest. For most men in that age group it would still be a number inside the normal range. Whether that changes energy, libido or body composition wasn't shown.
This is the part shilajit marketing tends to skip. Shilajit is a mineral substance used in traditional Ayurvedic preparations, and that category has a documented heavy-metal history.
A 2008 study in JAMA bought 193 Ayurvedic medicines online and found that about 21% contained detectable lead, mercury or arsenic. Products in the rasa shastra tradition, which deliberately combine herbs with metals or minerals, had metals more than twice as often (about 41%) as other products. Every metal-containing product exceeded at least one standard for acceptable daily intake, and three-quarters of them claimed to follow good manufacturing practices. That study covered Ayurvedic products in general, not shilajit specifically, but it shows why a mineral-based traditional product deserves extra scrutiny.
Shilajit-specific testing is more mixed:
The FDA does not approve dietary supplements before they're sold; manufacturers are responsible for their own safety and quality. In practice, that means the purity of the shilajit you buy depends heavily on the brand. Small amounts of a contaminant matter more when you take a product every day for months, which is exactly how shilajit is usually marketed.
If you still want to try it, reduce the risk:
Purified shilajit appears to be well tolerated in short studies, but long-term safety hasn't been established. Known cautions include:
Shilajit has less human testosterone data than several other ingredients. Tongkat ali, for example, has five small randomized trials pooled in a meta-analysis, with the clearest effect in men whose levels start low. If you're comparing products, our guide on how to choose a testosterone supplement covers how to check doses and evidence for each ingredient.
And if you have symptoms like low libido, fatigue and fewer morning erections, a morning blood test is a better first step than any supplement. It can pick up causes such as weight, sleep apnea or medications that a supplement won't fix.
Shilajit's testosterone claim rests on one small, unreplicated trial of one branded extract in healthy middle-aged men, which found a modest rise. That's not nothing, but it's thin. The more practical concern is purity: as a mineral resin from rock, shilajit can carry lead, arsenic, thallium and other contaminants, and the FDA doesn't check products before sale. If you try it, buy a purified extract with batch-level third-party heavy-metal results, take only the label dose, and tell your doctor, especially if you take diabetes medication or have a prostate or kidney condition.