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Everyday supplements › Berberine, Weight and Blood Sugar › Studies

Randomized trial · measured lab tests or safety

A 6-month berberine trial in 337 adults with fatty liver: no clear fat change

Lei and colleagues · JAMA network open · 2026

Original title: Berberine and Adiposity in Diabetes-Free Individuals With Obesity and MASLD: A Randomized Clinical Trial.

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What the study found

No difference

No difference in belly fat area (1.4%, 97.5% CI -2.4% to 5.2%) or liver fat (0.9%, 97.5% CI -0.4% to 2.1%). Cholesterol and inflammation fell more with berberine, but other secondary outcomes did not differ.

The study at a glance

Type of study
Randomized trial
Who or what was studied
337 people · Adults without diabetes who have obesity and fatty liver disease
What was tested
Berberine 1 g a day for 6 months, vs matching placebo
What it measured
Lab tests or markers
Daily amount
1 g a day
How long
26 weeks
Trial registration
NCT05647915
Who has a stake
No stake declared
No conflicts reported; no company funding listed.
Journal
JAMA network open, 2026
Source
PubMed record 41543854. This page is based on the abstract only.

How much this study counts

  • ✓Randomized: people were put into groups by chance, so the groups start out alike.
  • ✓Compared with a placebo, a dummy treatment.
  • ✓Large: 337 people.
  • •Lasted 26 weeks.
  • –Measured lab tests or markers, which stand in for body weight and blood sugar. A better marker does not always mean better health.
  • ✓No competing interests declared.
  • •Summarized from the PubMed abstract only. The full paper may hold details the abstract leaves out.

✓ Strength– Limit• Note

These points come from fixed rules about the type of study, its size and length, what it measured, and who has a stake. Every study on Digestery gets the same rules.

Where this study sits

Each dot is one on-topic paper on this question. Steps near the top answer the question more directly.

↑ Stronger evidence

  1. Trials in people: weight and blood sugar

    7

    7 benefit

  2. Trials in people: other measures

    7

    5 benefit, 1 mixed, 1 no difference

  3. Trials in people: lab tests or safety

    2

    1 benefit, 1 no difference

    ↑ This study is the ringed dot

  4. Population studies

    2

    2 benefit

  5. Blood levels and genes

    0

    None among the papers we read.

  6. Animals

    1

    1 benefit

↓ Weaker evidence

  • Points to benefit
  • Mixed
  • No difference
  • No direction
  • Points to harm

How it fits with the other research

The short answer to “Does berberine help with weight loss and blood sugar?”

Lowers blood sugar in diabetes; weight unclear.

Confidence: low. Based on 28 on-topic papers.

Read the full answer

Few other papers sit on the same step, so there is little to compare it with.

Other papers on the same step

See all 28 studies on this question

How this page was made

Label

First read of the abstract
Claude Sonnet
Independent second read
Claude Haiku
Differences settled
The two reads agreed on every checked field. Claude Opus 5.5.
Headline
Claude Sonnet, from the checked study record. A script checked its numbers and wording.
Numbers
Checked against the abstract by a script
“How much this study counts”
Fixed rules, the same for every study
Source check by a person
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