Concentrated Shatavari Extracts Expand Formulation Options in Women’s Hormonal Health

Women’s health—particularly products aimed at supporting hormonal balance—has emerged as a rapidly growing segment within the dietary supplement industry. At the 45th annual Natural Products Expo West, Todd Runestad, chief storytelling officer at NXT USA, discussed how concentrated botanical ingredient—such as shatavari—are being positioned to address this demand while offering formulation flexibility.

Shatavari (Asparagus racemosus), a plant widely used in Ayurvedic medicine, has historically been associated with women’s health. Runestad noted that interest in hormonal balance supplements has accelerated in recent years, reflecting increased consumer awareness of hormonal fluctuations across different stages of life, from menstruation through menopause.

According to Runestad, shatavari functions as a hormonal adaptogen—an ingredient intended to help the body maintain balance under varying physiological conditions. He pointed to clinical research examining shatavari extracts in different populations, including women with polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS) and perimenopausal women. In these studies, hormonal markers moved toward more balanced levels, though the direction of change differed depending on the baseline hormonal profile of participants.

One factor influencing product development is the concentration of active compounds. Conventional shatavari powders typically contain about 5% shatavarins—the plant’s primary phytochemicals. Runestad explained that the Xeya Modern Shatavari ingredient is standardized to approximately 15% shatavarins, allowing effective doses of 50–100 mg, compared with roughly 400–500 mg for less concentrated forms.Lower dosing requirements may provide advantages for certain delivery formats.

Runestad also noted that ingredient developers are exploring additional formats, including water-soluble versions suitable for beverage applications.

As consumer interest in women’s health continues to expand, ingredients historically used in traditional medicine—such as shatavari—are increasingly being evaluated through clinical research and modern formulation approaches.

A transcript of his conversation can be found below.

Nicholas Saraceno: Ladies and gentlemen, live from the 45th anniversary of Expo West, I'm Nico Saraceno, senior editor of Nutritional Outlook, and today I’m joined by Todd Runestad. He is the chief storytelling officer with NXT USA. So we have a lot to get to, so let's dive right in. Xeya Modern Shatavari—it's defined as this high potency, low-dose form of shatavari. There's human clinical data supporting hormonal balance. So I'm curious, how do these lower dosage levels impact formulation of flexibility for women's health products?

Todd Runestad: Shatavari really just exploded in the last year, and it's for hormonal balance. Hormonal balance is one of those supplement categories that didn't exist, like two or three years ago, and now it turns out it's one of the things that affects women from their first period to beyond their last, so, how you get PMS, how bad you get hot flashes. All that is all about your hormone fluctuations. And so what shatavari has shown is that it's a hormonal adaptogen, where we've done a study in 20 to 35 year olds with PCOS, polycystic ovary syndrome, the leading cause of reproductive failure, so or them, their hormone levels tend to be high, and it lowers it.

Then we did a study on perimenopausal women in their forties, and their hormonal levels tend to be low, and it elevated them. That’s part of the magic of adaptogens. Adaptogens, they work on different ways to help you adapt with stress, but a hormonal adaption is something different to where it’s like the plant knows where your hormone levels out, and it brings balance. That’s what's really cool.

What we've done is commodity shatavari is about 5% shatavarins. Those are the phytochemicals. We've concentrated that standardized to 15%, which means that in our studies, we've used doses of either 50 or 100 milligrams with a commodity shatavari you would use like 500 milligrams, maybe 400.

To answer the question, gummies are a great delivery format, but they have payload issues. If you only have to use 50 or 100 milligrams and not 500, you can get that in a gummy. That leads to better compliance. That’s the magic—or not really the magic—but the advantage of gummies is that people take it, but you can't put a lot in it, but if you only need to put 50 to 100 milligrams, that's the magic.

We’re working on water soluble forms that we can get it in beverages too, so we don't have that yet, but we're working on that. Shatavari is known as the queen of Ayurveda. Ashwagandha is the king. I think the queen's going to get right up there, although it's only used for women, not Ashwagandha is used for women and men, but it's big and growing, and we're right there at the top of the hat.

Saraceno: You mentioned ashwagandha, too. So how do long you think it'll take for it to get to thae level of ashwagandha?

Runestad: Well, ashwagandha, you know, as an adaptogen. It was studied by the Soviets in the Olympics, like rhodiola and schisandra, ashwagandha, others are, like the big three. I remember 20 years ago, seeing all this research, and then it never really caught on. And I was like, okay, I guess something happened. And probably like, 10 years later, when all of a sudden, out of nowhere, I was like, wait a minute. I thought people were buying ashwagandha. All of a sudden, it exploded. So you never really know, but, but I know that the, you know, the supply chain, we’ve got it managed well. I was just over in India last week and, and so, you know, we have enough to supply the market.

There are a number of half dozen suppliers out there that are providing shatavari in different concentrations of shatavarina, so the supply is there, and I think the market demand is there. Women's health has really come on, and hormonal balance is part of that segment of women's health.