Berberine benefits: what's established and what isn't

Berberine is best known for a large body of clinical research into its effects on metabolic markers, almost all of it run at 900 mg to 1.5 g a day. Electric Tiger's Berberine provides about 73 mg per serving — under a tenth of that range — so none of those study results describe what this product does. Here's what's actually established, and what isn't, at our dose.

What the research has actually tested

Berberine has been studied in dozens of trials, most in adults with metabolic markers outside the normal range, at doses of 900 mg to 1.5 g a day for one to three months. A pooled analysis of 12 placebo-controlled trials found a range as low as 300 mg a day on the low end. One dose-bracketing analysis alone pooled 50 studies and more than 4,000 participants; another pooled 12 placebo-controlled trials with just under 900. See how much berberine did the studies use for the dose used in every trial we found, and berberine: what the research shows for what those trials measured.

What "natural" doesn't tell you

Berberine being a plant-derived alkaloid doesn't by itself establish what any given dose does. Two products can both be "natural berberine" and deliver wildly different amounts of the actual compound, depending on extraction and standardization. The dose on the label — not the fact that it comes from a plant — is what determines whether a study result has anything to do with what you're taking.

Why we don't carry those results over to this product

Our serving provides about 73 mg of berberine — roughly 8% of the low end of the studied range, and below the lowest dose used in any pooled trial we found. That isn't a near miss; it's an order of magnitude. No trial has tested berberine at anything close to 73 mg a day for any outcome, so we don't claim this product produces the effects reported in the research above. This is the single biggest limitation of berberine at our dose, and we'd rather say so than imply otherwise.

What's actually on our label

Two capsules a day provide 800 mg of berberine HCl extract, standardized to 8% — about 73 mg of berberine — from bark and root. Other ingredients are cellulose (vegetable capsule), microcrystalline cellulose, L-leucine and olive oil. It's vegan, gluten-free, allergen-free and non-GMO, 30 servings a bottle, as low as $17.34 a bottle on subscription — about $0.58 a serving. That's a fact about composition, not a claim about effect.

Questions people ask

What does berberine do?

At the doses studied in clinical trials — 900 mg to 1.5 g a day — berberine has been researched for effects on several metabolic markers. At our 73 mg serving, we make no claim about what it does, because no trial has tested anywhere near that amount.

Is berberine good for you?

That depends entirely on the dose. The research behind berberine's reputation was done at 12 to 20 times what our serving provides. We can tell you what's in our product and how it's made; we can't tell you it reproduces study results run at a much higher dose.

What are the benefits of berberine?

The benefits reported in the literature come from trials at 900 mg to 1.5 g a day. We don't repeat those findings as claims for our 73 mg serving — see the dose gap above, and berberine: what the research shows for the trials themselves.

What is berberine used for?

Historically, berberine-containing plants were used in traditional practice. In modern research, it's mostly been studied at doses well above ours. What we can tell you with confidence is what's on our label: a bark-and-root extract standardized to 8%, about 73 mg of berberine per serving.

Does berberine work?

"Work" depends entirely on dose and what outcome you mean. At the doses studied in trials, researchers measured effects on metabolic markers; at our 73 mg dose, nothing has been tested, so we can't answer that question for this product.

Are the benefits different for women or men?

The research behind berberine doesn't establish a consistent sex-specific pattern, and none of it was run at our 73 mg dose. We don't make a benefits claim tied to sex for this product.

Related reading: what is berberine and how to choose a good berberine.