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Old June 24th, 2008, 10:36 PM
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Dr Lee Dr Lee is offline
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Glucosamine hydrochloride is far superior:

Quoted from Nutramax company...

Published data indicate that both salts are equally effective and that the sulfate moiety may not participate in any biological activity. You would require, however, substantially more of the sulfate salt to get an equal dose of glucosamine. [Fenton JI, et al: The Effects of Glucosamine Derivatives on Equine Articular Cartilage Degradation in Explant Culture. Osteoarthritis and Cartilage 8: 444, 2000] The glucosamine hydrochloride salt yields almost twice (1.7 x) as much useful, bioavailable glucosamine compared to the same mg amount of glucosamine sulfate.

For example, a 500 mg tablet of glucosamine hydrochloride yields approximately 409 mg of bioactive glucosamine whereas a 500 mg tablet of glucosamine sulfate yields only 239 mg of bioactive glucosamine.

The glucosamine yield difference is due to both the fact that the "sulfate" moiety is larger than the "hydrochloride moiety" to begin with and, more importantly, the purity of glucosamine sulfate salt is only about 80 % versus over 99% purity of the glucosamine hydrochloride salt. The result is, as mentioned, 1.7 times more glucosamine from the glucosamine hydrochloride salt as compared to the glucosamine sulfate salt on an equal mg weight basis.

It is interesting to note that the vast majority of the veterinary (and human) research on glucosamine in the United States has been done with the combination of glucosamine hydrochloride and chondroitin sulfate primarily using Cosequin®


Hope that helps!
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Christopher A. Lee, DVM, MPH, Diplomate ACVPM
Preventive Medicine Specialist With a Focus on Immunology and Infectious Disease
myvetzone.com
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