Shilajit Glossary: 40 Terms Explained in Plain English
Shilajit writing is full of words that sound technical and aren't always used carefully. Fulvic acid gets thrown around on labels. "Adaptogen" turns up with no definition. "Lab tested" can mean almost anything. This glossary gives each term a short, plain definition, tells you where it can mislead, and links to the longer article when we have one.
What this page is
Forty terms in five groups: names and traditions, chemistry, product and purification, testing, and research and regulation. Definitions are written to stand alone, so you can read one without reading the rest.
Jump to a group
Names and traditions
- Shilajit
- A pale-brown to blackish-brown exudation of variable consistency, found in mountain ranges and mainly the Himalayas. Chemically it is a complex mixture of humic substances and plant and microbial metabolites. Also spelled shilajeet.
- Shilajatu
- The Sanskrit-derived form of the name used in Ayurvedic texts and in some clinical papers. In the 2016 diabetes trial it meant a processed Ayurvedic preparation.
- Mumijo
- The name used in Russia and Central Asia for comparable mountain materials, also spelled mumie. Whether it matches Himalayan shilajit chemically depends on the source, which our origins comparison looks at.
- Himalayan asphaltum
- A label some researchers use for shilajit-type material, as in a 2026 paper on nanoparticle synthesis. Same family of material, different name.
- Ayurveda
- The traditional medical system of the Indian subcontinent, where shilajit is described and used. Classical texts record tradition. They are not clinical evidence.
- Rasayana
- An Ayurvedic category of rejuvenating preparations. Reviews describe shilajit as a rejuvenator, and it appears in twenty classical formulations.
- Adaptogen
- A modern word for substances said to help the body cope with stress. A 2007 review applies it to shilajit. It is a descriptive label, not a proven or regulated category.
Chemistry
- Humic substances
- Dark organic material formed by the very slow breakdown of plants and microbes. It also occurs in soil, peat and coal. In shilajit it is the main constituent.
- Humin
- The fraction of humic substances that cannot be extracted with either strong base or strong acid.
- Humic acid
- The fraction that dissolves in base but is insoluble at low pH, so it precipitates when the solution is acidified to pH 1.
- Fulvic acid
- The fraction that stays dissolved at low pH. It is the part marketing talks about most. Reported percentages vary between products and between test methods, so a number on a label is only as good as the method behind it. See shilajit vs fulvic acid.
- Dibenzo-alpha-pyrones
- Often shortened to DBPs. A class of compounds that researchers have identified in shilajit, most recently by GC-MS analysis in 2025. Along with fulvic acid, they are among the groups people point to when explaining what shilajit contains.
- Phenolic acids
- Plant-derived compounds such as gallic, vanillic, caffeic and ferulic acid. A 2026 study measured nine of them in shilajit from five regions.
- Metabolites
- Small molecules that plants and microbes produce as they live and decay. Reviews describe shilajit as containing them alongside humic substances.
- Exudate
- Material that seeps out of its source rather than being dug or cut out. Shilajit is described in the literature as an exudation.
Product and purification
- Shodhana
- The traditional Ayurvedic purification step. For shilajit it involves dissolving the raw material, filtering out debris and drying what is left. We cover it in our shodhana article.
- Raw shilajit
- Material as collected, before cleaning. It can carry rock fragments and plant debris, which is why purification exists.
- Purified shilajit
- Material after a purification process. Methods differ between suppliers, which is one reason trial results for one preparation don't automatically apply to another.
- Resin
- The soft, tar-like form shilajit takes after purification and drying. It softens easily with warmth.
- Net weight
- The weight of the contents without the container. A ShilNepal tin is 30g net, and some empty space at the top of the tin is normal.
- Serve
- A measured amount for one use. ShilNepal's standard serve is about 0.3g, roughly pea-sized, which gives about 100 serves per tin. See how long a tin lasts.
- Batch number
- An identifier for one production run. Lab results apply only to the batch they were run on, so match the number on your tin to the number on the report. Our current batch is 1093.
Testing
- Certificate of Analysis (CoA)
- A lab document listing which tests were run on a specific batch and what was found. Our guide on reading a shilajit lab report shows what to look for.
- Heavy metals
- In this context mainly lead, arsenic, cadmium and mercury. They are toxic at low levels and routinely tested for in natural products. A useful report names each metal and the limit it was compared against.
- ICP-MS
- Inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry, a technique commonly used to measure trace metals at very low concentrations.
- Limit of reporting
- The smallest amount a lab can reliably measure. A result written as "less than 0.01" means below that floor. That is not the same as zero.
- GC-MS
- Gas chromatography mass spectrometry. It separates a mixture and identifies the compounds in it. The 2025 shilajit analysis used it.
- HPLC-MS/MS
- High-performance liquid chromatography with tandem mass spectrometry, a method for measuring specific compounds. The 2026 five-region phenolic acid comparison used it.
- Accredited laboratory
- A lab formally assessed against a quality standard. In Australia, NATA (the National Association of Testing Authorities) accredits many labs. Accreditation covers specific tests, so check that it covers the ones you care about.
Research
- Randomised controlled trial (RCT)
- A study where participants are assigned to treatment or comparison groups by chance, so the groups start out alike.
- Placebo
- A look-alike with no active ingredient. It controls for the effect of simply taking part and expecting something to happen.
- Double-blind
- Neither the participants nor the researchers know who received what until the results are in.
- Open-label study
- A study without a placebo group, where everyone knows what they are taking. Good for generating ideas, weak for proving anything. The 2010 oligospermia study and the 2016 diabetes trial had no placebo group.
- Pilot study
- A small early study that checks whether something is worth testing properly. A pilot result is a signal, not a conclusion.
- Systematic review
- A structured search for all studies on a question, with set rules about which count. We use one in our deer velvet comparison.
Regulation and sport
- TGA
- The Therapeutic Goods Administration, Australia's regulator of therapeutic goods. ShilNepal Shilajit Resin is not registered with the TGA. Our article on shilajit and Australian law covers what that does and doesn't mean.
- Medsafe
- New Zealand's medicines and medical devices safety authority, part of the Ministry of Health. See is shilajit legal in New Zealand.
- WADA Prohibited List
- The World Anti-Doping Agency's annual list of substances and methods banned in sport. It is not exhaustive. A substance can be absent by name and still fall within a listed category.
- Strict liability
- The anti-doping rule that an athlete is responsible for anything found in their sample, whatever the label said or however it got there.
- Batch-tested supplement
- A supplement whose specific production batch was screened for prohibited substances by an independent programme such as HASTA or Informed Sport. Lower risk, not zero risk. See is shilajit banned in sport.
Sources
- Agarwal SP, Khanna R, Karmarkar R, Anwer MK, Khar RK. Shilajit: a review. Phytotherapy Research. 2007;21(5):401 to 405.
- Wilson E, Rajamanickam GV, Dubey GP, et al. Review on shilajit used in traditional Indian medicine. Journal of Ethnopharmacology. 2011;136(1):1 to 9.
- Basavaraja D, Katkar R, Dhaka P, et al. Chemical analysis of native Himalayan shilajit. ACS Omega. 2025. PMID 41404054.
- Kamgar E, Spryszynska A, Zembrzuska J, et al. Plant-derived phenolic acids in Shilajit: a comparative HPLC-MS/MS analysis across five regions. Scientific Reports. 2026. PMID 41699045.
- Janković N, Rizun N, Stefanović S, et al. Himalayan asphaltum-driven synthesis of gold and selenium nanoparticles. Molecules. 2026. PMID 42588498.
- Gupta V, Keshari BB, Tiwari SK, Murthy KHHVSSN. A comparative study of Shilajatu and Asanadi Ghana Vati in the management of Madhumeha. Ayu. 2016;37(2). PMC5688834.
- International Humic Substances Society. What are humic substances? Solubility-based definitions of humic acid, fulvic acid and humin.
This glossary is general information, not medical or legal advice.