Research review
Does saw palmetto help with acne or oily skin?
The evidence doesn't support saw palmetto for acne. No trial — oral or topical, placebo-controlled or otherwise — has tested it for diagnosed acne. The closest data is one small, uncontrolled study of a topical three-ingredient blend for oily skin, which had no placebo group.
The evidence doesn't support saw palmetto for acne. No trial — oral or topical, placebo-controlled or otherwise — has tested it for diagnosed acne. The closest thing that exists is one small, uncontrolled study of a topical blend for oily skin, which had no placebo group and didn't evaluate acne specifically.
What the evidence doesn't support
It doesn't support saw palmetto, oral or topical, as a treatment for acne vulgaris, hormonal acne, or any other diagnosed skin condition. It doesn't support the idea that saw palmetto's hormone-related mechanism, seen in a laboratory dish, translates into less oil production or fewer breakouts on skin. No trial we found tested saw palmetto for acne specifically, at any dose or in any form.
What the trials found
The nearest available data is a 2007 open-label study of a topical cream blending saw palmetto with sesame seed and argan oil extracts, applied twice daily for 4 weeks to 20 volunteers with oily or combination facial skin — not diagnosed acne. Measured sebum output and clinical oiliness scores dropped over the study period, and most volunteers reported a subjective improvement. Three things limit what that can tell you about acne: there was no placebo or control group, so a normal seasonal or expectation-driven change can't be ruled out; it tested a three-ingredient blend, not saw palmetto by itself; and oily skin is not the same thing as acne, which involves inflammation and bacteria the study didn't measure.
Separately, a laboratory study found that one specific saw palmetto extract blocked 5-alpha-reductase — the enzyme that converts testosterone into DHT — in cultured prostate cells. Since hormonal acne is linked to androgen activity in skin, that mechanism is sometimes cited as a reason saw palmetto might help. But that finding is about cells in a dish, not a measurement of hormone levels, oil production, or breakouts in a person, and no trial has tested whether it actually changes anything on skin.
Questions people ask
Does saw palmetto help with acne?
No trial has tested it for acne specifically. The nearest related study tested a topical blend for oily skin, not acne, with no placebo group — it can't establish that saw palmetto helps with breakouts.
Can saw palmetto cause acne?
No trial we found reported acne as a side effect of saw palmetto. A systematic review of 40 studies on saw palmetto's adverse events didn't list acne or breakouts among the commonly reported side effects.
Is saw palmetto good for hormonal acne?
There's no trial testing it for that. Hormonal acne has established, evidence-based treatments a dermatologist can evaluate; saw palmetto isn't one of them based on the research available.
How much saw palmetto is needed for acne?
There's no studied dose for this use, since no trial has tested saw palmetto for acne at any dose.
When to talk to a doctor
Saw palmetto is not a treatment for acne or any other skin condition. Persistent, painful, or scarring acne — especially if it's new, worsening, or accompanied by other symptoms like irregular periods or excess hair growth — is worth seeing a dermatologist about rather than trying an unstudied supplement.
Related reading: saw palmetto oil and topical use: what the research covers, what does saw palmetto do for women, and saw palmetto benefits: what the research does and doesn't show.
Sources
- Clinical and instrumental study of the efficacy of a new sebum control cream A small, uncontrolled 4-week study of a topical cream blending saw palmetto with sesame and argan oil found reduced measured sebum and oily-skin scores in 20 volunteers, but with no placebo group, a three-ingredient blend, and no diagnosed acne, it can't show what saw palmetto by itself does for skin.
- Serenoa repens (Permixon) inhibits the 5alpha-reductase activity of human prostate cancer cell lines without interfering with PSA expression A laboratory study found one specific saw palmetto extract blocked an enzyme that converts testosterone to DHT in cultured prostate cells, without lowering PSA production in those cells — a cell-culture finding, not proof it changes hormone levels in someone taking a capsule.
*These statements have not been evaluated by the Food and Drug Administration. This product is not intended to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any disease.