Honey Harmony Ingredients & Doses: All 22 Actives, Exact Amounts

The full label, line by line

The bottle is a 30 mL (1 fl oz) amber dropper. The serving is 1 mL, so a bottle holds 30 servings, a month at one dropperful a day. The label lists two things with amounts: chromium at 7 mcg, which is 20% of the Daily Value, and a proprietary blend at 15.47 mg. Inside that blend sit 21 named ingredients with no individual amounts.

The other ingredients are water, natural flavors, potassium sorbate, stevia, xylitol, citrus extract. Water is the base. Potassium sorbate is a common preservative. Stevia and xylitol sweeten the drops, and the monoammonium glycyrrhizinate in the blend, a licorice-derived compound, adds more sweetness. Citrus extract and natural flavors set the taste.

Federal rules let a company list a proprietary blend by its total weight and the order of its ingredients, without the amount of each ^[1]. That is legal. It also means a buyer cannot tell whether the gymnema on line 8 is 10 mg or 0.1 mg. We flag every one of those 21 lines rather than guess.

What 15.47 mg actually means

15.47 milligrams is about the weight of a few grains of rice. Shared by 21 ingredients, it averages 0.74 mg each. Blends are rarely equal, and the order on a label is by weight, so maca, listed first, probably holds the largest share and L-carnitine, listed last, the smallest. Even so, no single line can exceed 15.47 mg.

The extract ratios do not rescue the arithmetic. A 20:1 ratio means 20 parts of starting plant made 1 part of extract. If all 15.47 mg were 20:1 extract, the blend would stand for about 309 mg of raw plant in total, still shared 21 ways, and still below a single trial dose of gymnema leaf extract, which was about 400 mg of extract, not of raw leaf ^[2].

This is the single most useful fact on the label. It does not tell you the drops are harmful. It tells you the research on the famous ingredients cannot be borrowed for this bottle.

Gymnema sylvestre

Gymnema is a climbing plant from India whose leaves have been used in Ayurvedic medicine for diabetes. Its gymnemic acids sit on sweet-taste receptors, which is why chewing the leaf makes sugar taste like sand for a while. In lab work they also slow glucose transport in the gut ^[3].

The human evidence is the best on this label. An early uncontrolled study gave 22 adults with type 2 diabetes 400 mg a day of a leaf extract next to their usual medicine for up to 20 months, and their fasting glucose and HbA1c fell ^[2]. Meta-analyses of later trials report modest improvements in fasting glucose and HbA1c, with heavy caveats about trial size and quality ^{[4] [5]}. A 2020 trial found gymnema reduced the desire for high-sugar sweet foods ^[6].

Two cautions. At effective doses, gymnema can add to insulin and sulfonylureas and push glucose too low. And LiverTox records cases of liver injury, including a published case of toxic hepatitis in a man taking gymnema for diabetes ^{[7] [8]}. In Honey Harmony, gymnema is an unstated share of 15.47 mg.

Chromium picolinate, 7 mcg

Chromium is a trace mineral involved in insulin action. NIH sets adequate intakes at 20 to 35 mcg a day for adults, and most people get that from food ^[9]. The label's 7 mcg is the only printed dose and a sensible dietary amount.

Trials testing chromium for blood sugar used 200 to 1,000 mcg. The results are mixed: a 2014 meta-analysis found small improvements in some glucose measures with large differences between studies ^[10], and a 2016 review titled its conclusion “limited evidence of effectiveness” ^[11]. In 2005 the FDA allowed chromium picolinate only a qualified health claim, stating that the link to insulin resistance is highly uncertain ^[12]. At 7 mcg, Honey Harmony sits far below even that uncertain range.

Green tea, Panax ginseng and African mango

Maca and the other 16 lines

The remaining 16 lines split into three groups. Botanicals with some research on other outcomes: grape seed for blood pressure ^[22], astragalus with little high-quality evidence for anything ^[23], forskolin for body composition ^[24], eleuthero for fatigue. Weight-loss staples with thin human data: raspberry ketones, cayenne, grapefruit seed. And amino acids, L-glutamine, L-tyrosine, L-arginine, beta-alanine, GABA, L-tryptophan and L-carnitine, which researchers study in grams a day and which people eat in grams with ordinary protein.

The average grade across all 22 lines is 11%. That grade describes the research at studied doses; at this label's doses every line would score close to zero.

Three ingredients we would discount, and why

If you are weighing the formula, three lines stand out for the wrong reasons:

1. Guarana seed extract. It is a caffeine source, and caffeine raised after-meal glucose and insulin in people with type 2 diabetes ^[25]. The amount here is too small to matter, but it is the opposite of what a blood sugar formula should add, and it sits awkwardly next to the seller's “without artificial stimulants” line.
2. Raspberry ketones. A weight-loss fashion built on animal studies. We found no human trial of raspberry ketones on their own for weight or glucose.
3. Maca root extract. Listed first, so probably the largest share of the blend, and the ingredient with no blood sugar research at all.

Together they take up the top of the blend list and a large part of its weight, which leaves even less of the 15.47 mg for gymnema, the one ingredient with a credible glucose record. Read more about why labels end up this way in our underdosed actives case study.

Interactions worth clearing first

Ask a pharmacist or prescriber before starting if any of these apply:

• Insulin, sulfonylureas or other glucose-lowering drugs. Gymnema, chromium and ginseng at real doses can add to them. Know the signs of low blood sugar, such as shakiness, sweating, confusion and a fast heartbeat, and how to treat it ^[26]. Do not lower a prescribed dose because readings improve without talking to your prescriber.
• Liver disease. Gymnema and concentrated green tea extracts appear in liver injury case reports ^{[8] [14]}. Stop and get checked for dark urine, yellow skin or eyes, or pain under the right ribs.
• Caffeine sensitivity. Guarana supplies caffeine, likely trivial here, but worth knowing if you avoid it completely.
• Blood pressure and potassium. Licorice compounds raise blood pressure and lower potassium in large amounts ^[27]; the sweetener share here is small.
• Pregnancy, breastfeeding and under 18. The label says not for use.
• Pets. The liquid contains xylitol, which is dangerous for dogs even in small amounts ^[28]. Keep the bottle out of reach.

Report a serious reaction to the FDA ^[29]. NIH's advice for anyone with diabetes is to tell every clinician about every supplement and never replace proven treatment with one ^[30].