Why do sellers argue over yellow, red and black tongkat ali?

Are yellow, red and black the same plant?

No, even when the cards on the counter are lined up like three flavours of the same drink. A 2023 laboratory study in the Tropical Journal of Natural Product Research compared three plants that local people call tongkat ali: Eurycoma longifolia, Polyalthia bullata and Stema tuberosa. The authors said the local names follow the natural colour of the root bark: pale yellow or almost white for E. longifolia (they recorded the name Tongkat Ali Putih), black for P. bullata, and red for S. tuberosa.

Market names are not always that tidy. FRIM, in Herba Xpress, records Eurycoma longifolia as tongkat ali and describes its root as pale yellow. So both “yellow” and “white” have been attached to the same species in different sources. That is why an argument at the counter is not enough to identify the plant.

Which plant is usually called yellow tongkat ali?

Eurycoma longifolia. FRIM lists the local names tongkat ali, pasak bumi, tongkat baginda, petala bumi, penawar pahit, lempedu pahit and setunjang bumi for this species, and says the root is pale yellow.

The human studies most often cited are about this species, not the other two plants. What those studies show, what is still uncertain, and the safety limits are summarised in what is tongkat ali. This article does not repeat those study figures and does not add a new claim.

What are black tongkat ali and red tongkat ali?

MyBIS, Malaysia's biodiversity database, records Polyalthia bullata under the vernacular name Tongkat Ali Hitam. So when a seller says “black is different”, they may be talking about another plant, not a fancier version of the same root.

In the 2023 TJNPR paper, red tongkat ali is Stema tuberosa, named for the colour of its root bark. The spelling follows that paper. The same paper found the compound eurycomanone in the E. longifolia extract they tested, but not in the P. bullata or S. tuberosa extracts in that HPLC test. That is a chemical difference in one laboratory study, not proof that one of them works in people.

Does the colour in the name prove it is stronger?

No. This is the argument that sells: colour treated as a score. A colour in a sales name is not a measure of strength and not a grade of the same root. The 2023 study compared three species, and the authors themselves said E. longifolia has been studied far more than the other two. None of the sources used here shows that the name black or red means a larger effect.

Do not use a colour on a card, or a confident line from a seller, as a reason to expect any result in the body.

What should you read before you trust a colour?

Read the scientific name on the label if there is one, and do not treat the words yellow, red or black as the same ingredient. If the label does not name the species, you cannot tell which plant is meant. An argument at the counter does not fill that gap.

This article does not refer to any product sold on the Lebih Yakin site. It does not say that any of those products contain tongkat ali. For the limits of the evidence on Eurycoma longifolia, read what is tongkat ali: facts, research and safety.

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