The CogniMary Supplement Facts panel, line by line
Most product pages in this category show a photograph of the panel, or no panel at all. This one transcribes it as text you can select, search and read aloud, and then explains every line on it.
CogniMary's panel declares a serving of 2 capsules, 30 servings a container, and four quantified nutrients: folate 600 µg DFE, vitamin B12 240 µg, magnesium 250 mg as the oxide, and chromium 120 µg. Eleven further ingredients sit inside a 635 mg proprietary blend whose split is not disclosed.
One line does not check out: 320 µg of folic acid converts to 544 µg DFE under the FDA's rule, not the 600 µg printed.
The panel, exactly as printed
Supplement Facts
Serving Size: 2 Capsules
Servings Per Container: 30
Cinnamon (Cinnamomum spp. bark) Extract, Ginkgo Biloba (leaf) Extract, Bilberry (Vaccinium cyanococcus fruit) Extract, Bacopa monnieri (whole plant) Extract [NLT 20% Bacosides], Green Tea (leaf) Extract [NLT 50% Epigallocatechin gallate], Berberine HCl, L-Theanine, Alpa Lipoic Acid (ALA), GPC Choline (α-Glycerophosphorylcholine), Lutein (Marigold flower Extract), Zeaxanthin (Marigold flower Extract)
‡ Daily Value not established
Other Ingredients: BSE-free gelatin (capsule), rice flour, silicon dioxide, magnesium stearate
Transcribed from the bottle artwork supplied to this website.
Two independent renders of the bottle were supplied — the back of the bottle and a marketing panel showing the same label — and they agree line for line. Where the printed panel misspells a word, the misspelling is preserved above, because a transcription that silently corrects its source is not a transcription.
What a panel is worth
A Supplement Facts panel is the one part of a supplement that is regulated in format. It has to declare the serving size, the servings per container, the amount of each dietary ingredient, and the percent Daily Value where one exists. Products that publish one can be checked. Products that do not, cannot.
So the first thing to say about this label is that it exists, it is legible, and it is more than many competitors print.
The four quantified nutrients
Each one against the FDA's current Daily Value for adults.
| Nutrient | Per serving | % Daily Value | The Daily Value | What to notice |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Folate as 320µg folic acid | 600 µg DFE | 150% | 400 µg DFE | the only row on this panel whose arithmetic does not check out |
| Vitamin B12 as cyanocobalamin | 240 µg | 10,000% | 2.4 µg | one hundred times the Daily Value |
| Magnesium as magnesium oxide | 250 mg | 60% | 420 mg | the cheapest and least absorbable common magnesium salt |
| Chromium as chromium picolinate | 120 µg | 343% | 35 µg | roughly three and a half times the adequate intake |
Scroll this table sideways →
The Daily Values in that table are the FDA's own figures. A percent Daily Value is a comparison with a reference intake for the general population; it is not a statement about a dose that does anything.
Folate, and the line that does not add up
The panel declares 600 µg DFE (as 320 µg folic acid). DFE stands for dietary folate equivalents, and the FDA's guidance for industry sets out the conversion: micrograms of DFE equal the micrograms of natural food folate plus 1.7 times the micrograms of folic acid. This product contains only folic acid, so the sum is simple.
| Working | Figure |
|---|---|
| 320 µg folic acid × 1.7 | 544 µg DFE |
| Printed on the panel | 600 µg DFE |
| Folic acid needed to print 600 µg DFE | ≈ 353 µg |
| Difference | 56 µg DFE, about 10% |
We do not know which of the two printed numbers is the error, and we are not going to guess. Both are published here with the rule beside them. Neither figure is anywhere near the 1,000 µg upper intake level for folic acid in adults, so this is an accuracy question rather than a safety one.
Vitamin B12 at ten thousand percent
240 micrograms of cyanocobalamin against a Daily Value of 2.4 micrograms gives the panel its most eye-catching figure. It is worth being precise about what it does and does not mean.
There is no upper limit for B12
The Food and Nutrition Board did not set one, because the potential for toxicity is low. Absorption is limited by intrinsic factor at ordinary doses and becomes inefficient passive uptake at large ones.
Not a safety flag
No upper limit is not a safety demonstration
It means no adverse-effect threshold has been identified in the available studies. That is a narrower statement than “safe at any dose”, and worth keeping straight.
A narrower claim than it sounds
It is not a cognitive mechanism either
A 2021 meta-analysis concluded B12 supplementation is likely ineffective for cognitive function in people without an advanced neurological disorder. Cochrane found no trials at all in non-deficient people.
The reviews are on the record
If you are deficient, B12 matters enormously, and that is a conversation with a clinician and a blood test rather than with a product page. If you are not, a hundred times the reference intake is a number on a panel.
Magnesium, and the form it comes in
250 mg of magnesium is 60% of the Daily Value and sits under the 350 mg upper intake level that applies to supplemental magnesium. The amount is unremarkable. The form is the interesting part.
The panel says magnesium oxide. NIH's own fact sheet states that magnesium in the aspartate, citrate, lactate and chloride forms is absorbed more completely and is more bioavailable than the oxide and the sulfate. Three published comparisons back that up.
| Study | What it compared | What it found |
|---|---|---|
| Lindberg et al., 1990 | Citrate against oxide, single oral load | Markedly higher urinary magnesium recovery from citrate |
| Walker et al., 2003 | Citrate, amino-acid chelate and oxide over 60 days | Plasma magnesium rose on citrate and did not move on oxide |
| Kappeler et al., 2017 | Citrate against oxide, single dose crossover | Higher 24-hour urinary excretion and higher serum magnesium on citrate |
Scroll this table sideways →
What we will not repeat
The figure you will see everywhere — that magnesium oxide is “only 4% absorbed” — is not something we could trace to a source we could open. The studies above show oxide performing worse than citrate. They do not establish a single universal absorption percentage, so we are not going to quote one.
There is a second, more practical point. NIH names magnesium oxide among the forms most likely to cause diarrhoea, nausea and cramping at high supplemental intakes. If this product disagrees with you, the magnesium row is the first place to look.
Chromium picolinate at 343%
Chromium has no RDA. The Food and Nutrition Board found the data insufficient to set one and published an Adequate Intake instead: 35 µg a day for men aged 19 to 50, 25 µg for women. The panel declares 120 µg, so roughly three to five times the adequate intake depending on who is taking it.
On what it does, NIH's fact sheet is unusually blunt. On blood sugar it reports that chromium lowered fasting glucose and HbA1c slightly in people with diabetes and that the clinical significance of the finding is unclear. On weight it reports a very small but statistically significant effect with little clinical significance.
For cognition, there is one small pilot trial in older adults whose primary outcome — learning rate and retention — was not improved. That is the whole literature we could find, and it is not enough to build a claim on.
No upper limit here either, and for a different reason
The Board did not set an upper limit for chromium because no adverse effects have been linked to high intakes from food or supplements. As with B12, that reflects the state of the evidence rather than a demonstration of safety at any dose.
The Other Ingredients line
Four items: BSE-free gelatin (capsule), rice flour, silicon dioxide, magnesium stearate. Short, ordinary, and more informative than it looks.
- BSE-free gelatin
- The capsule shell. Gelatin is an animal product, so this is not a vegetarian or vegan supplement — which the label does not say in as many words anywhere on the bottle.
- Rice flour
- A filler. In a capsule with a 635 mg blend and 250 mg of magnesium oxide, there is not a great deal of room left for it, which is its own small piece of evidence about how full these capsules are.
- Silicon dioxide
- A flow agent, used so powder moves through a capsule-filling machine without sticking. Ordinary and present in most capsules.
- Magnesium stearate
- A lubricant, also ordinary. Worth noting only because the panel already declares 250 mg of magnesium above, and the stearate is not part of that figure.
What the line does not include is a colour, a sweetener or a preservative, which is a point in the product's favour.
The directions and the warnings
Printed on the side of the bottle, transcribed exactly:
Directions
“Take 2 capsules daily (or as needed) or as directed by your health care provider.”
Warnings
“KEEP OUT OF REACH OF CHILDREN. Do not use if you are pregnant or nursing. As with any dietary supplement, consult with your healthcare provider before use. Safety sealed for your protection. DO NOT USE if safety seal is broken. Store in a cool, dry place.”
The phrase “or as needed” is the odd one. A panel built on thirty daily servings assumes a daily serving. If a buyer takes the product as needed, the servings-per-container figure stops describing anything, and so does every other number on the label.
What the panel still does not tell you
- How the 635 mg divides. Eleven ingredients, one number. This is legal and it is the single most important gap on the label.
- Which bilberry. The panel prints a common name and a botanical name that belong to two different plants.
- How much EGCG. The green tea extract is standardised to not less than 50% EGCG, but 50% of an undisclosed amount is still undisclosed.
- Who manufactures it. The panel names a distributor, not a manufacturing facility.
- Whether any of it was tested. No certificate of analysis was supplied with this build.
What can be worked out anyway →Why the split is allowed to be hidden →What the seals do and do not mean →
Order CogniMary from the official website
Sixty capsules, thirty days, and a panel you can read before you buy. Start with one bottle so you can see the price and the guarantee term before you commit to six.
No price was published to this website. The figure is on the checkout page.
References
The sources behind the numbers on this page.
- U.S. Food and Drug AdministrationDaily Value on the Nutrition and Supplement Facts Labels — FDA.gov · source
- U.S. Food and Drug AdministrationConverting Units of Measure for Folate, Niacin, and Vitamin E on the Nutrition and Supplement Facts Labels: Guidance for Industry — FDA.gov · source
- NIH Office of Dietary SupplementsFolate — Health Professional Fact Sheet — ods.od.nih.gov · source
- NIH Office of Dietary SupplementsVitamin B12 — Health Professional Fact Sheet — ods.od.nih.gov · source
- NIH Office of Dietary SupplementsMagnesium — Health Professional Fact Sheet — ods.od.nih.gov · source
- NIH Office of Dietary SupplementsChromium — Health Professional Fact Sheet — ods.od.nih.gov · source
- Lindberg, Zobitz, Poindexter & Pak — 1990Magnesium bioavailability from magnesium citrate and magnesium oxide — Journal of the American College of Nutrition · PMID 2407766 · source
- Walker, Marakis, Christie & Byng — 2003Mg citrate found more bioavailable than other Mg preparations in a randomised, double-blind study — Magnesium Research · PMID 14596323 · source
- Kappeler, Heimbeck, Herpich et al. — 2017Higher bioavailability of magnesium citrate as compared to magnesium oxide — BMC Nutrition · DOI 10.1186/s40795-016-0121-3 · source
- Markun, Gravestock, Jäger et al. — 2021Effects of Vitamin B12 Supplementation on Cognitive Function, Depressive Symptoms, and Fatigue: A Systematic Review, Meta-Analysis, and Meta-Regression — Nutrients · DOI 10.3390/nu13030923 · source
- Malouf, Grimley Evans & Areosa Sastre — 2003Folic acid with or without vitamin B12 for cognition and dementia — Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews · CD004514 · source
- U.S. Government Publishing Office21 CFR 101.36 — Nutrition labeling of dietary supplements — eCFR.gov · source
The panel as it appears on the bottle
Two renders of the same label were supplied: the bottle back shown here, and a marketing panel that reproduces the panel alongside the product. They agree line for line, which is worth saying because a transcription from a single blurry photograph would be worth much less.
The panel is printed in the standard format: a heavy rule under the heading, the serving information above the first rule, the quantified nutrients in a column with their percent Daily Values, then the blend line with its total to the right of the name, then the ingredients indented underneath it.
That format is set by regulation, which is what makes panels comparable between products. Once you can read one, you can read all of them.
The directions and warnings panel
The side panel carries the directions, the warnings and the FDA disclaimer. It is the shortest of the three printed panels and the one most buyers never read.
It is also where the pregnancy and nursing instruction lives. That is a prohibition rather than a caution, and it is printed in the same size as everything around it, which is a reasonable argument for reading the whole panel once before the first capsule.
The full transcription of both directions and warnings is further up this page.
What a buyer should do with this page
A transcription is only useful if it gets used. Three things this page is for.
Check your own bottle against it
Line for line. Serving size, servings per container, the four quantified rows and the 635 mg blend line. If your bottle differs, something has changed or something is wrong, and either is worth a phone call.
Two minutes, on delivery
Copy it and take it to a clinician
The copy button above puts the whole panel on your clipboard as text. “A brain supplement” is not enough for a pharmacist to advise on; this is.
Better than a photograph
Compare it with another product
Panels are comparable because their format is regulated. Put this one beside any competitor and the differences are immediately visible.
The point of the format
The third one is the reason this site transcribes the panel as text rather than showing a picture of it. A photograph cannot be searched, cannot be read aloud by a screen reader, and cannot be pasted into an email to somebody who knows more than you do.