Our company, UD Sumatra Pasak Bumi in Medan, Indonesia, developed the tongkat ali 1:200 extract. After it rapidly gained popularity, a great number of fakes appeared on the market. There are two classes of fakes:

1. outright fakes that are no tongkat ali at all, but any other plant material, often mixed with bootleg sildenafil analogues, usually originating in China

2. deceptive fakes that are low-concentration tongkat ali extracts labeled as 1:200, with typical concentrations somewhere between 1:5 and 1:20, originating in Indonesia or Malaysia

Either kind of scam works by blinding potential buyers with prices for 1:200 tongkat ali extract that seem lower than those of Sumatra Pasak Bumi's. But in reality, a 1:20 extract sold at 30 US dollars is 5 times more expensive than a 1:200 extract sold at 60 US dollars.

Fakers of either category go to great lengths in their efforts to gain some legitimacy for their wares.

One common scam is to submit samples of 1:20 extract to laboratories for having it tested for salmonella or E. coli. However, when the sample is submitted to the laboratory, it is designated as 1:200.

Anyway, the laboratory is paid to perform cheap tests for salmonella and E. coli. They will just do that. And if the sample is submitted with a designation "1:200 tongkat ali extract", the laboratory will return a lab report that says: 1:200 tongkat ali extract, free of salmonella and E. coli

The lab will not examine whether the sample submitted for testing is indeed 1:200 extract, or just 1:20 extract. In fact, the lab will not even test whether the submitted sample is tongkat ali at all. Such tests would require different, and much more expensive equipment.

Tests for salmonella and E. coli are performed in microbiology faculties. Tests for the chemical composition of samples are a task handled in analytical chemistry labs. And fakes are most reliably uncovered in forensic labs.

At the end of the day, all of the certificates presented by fakers mean nothing. The only assurance you can rely on is a confirmation from the source of the original product that what a reseller distributes is indeed genuine 1:200 tongkat ali extract.