Guide

Does BodyHealth Tributyrin work? A 200 mg complex with no tributyrin figure, next to the butyrate trials

BodyHealth Tributyrin is a capsule of tributyrin, a fat made of three butyric acid units on a glycerol backbone, paired with a small amino acid and nucleotide blend the brand calls PerfectAmino. Butyrate is the short-chain fatty acid gut bacteria make from fiber; most supplements use a salt, and this one uses the fat form, which the brand describes as a postbiotic.

What BodyHealth Tributyrin is, and what it is not

The serving is one capsule, and a bottle holds 60. The Supplement Facts panel prints two lines: Tributyrin Complex, 200 mg, and a PerfectAmino “EAA & NA” proprietary blend, 25 mg. The other ingredients are microcrystalline cellulose, a hypromellose capsule, silicon dioxide and magnesium stearate, and the bottle says vegan, non-GMO, gluten free and dairy free.

What the panel does not say is how much of the 200 mg is tributyrin. Tributyrin carries three butyric acid units and is about 87% butyric acid by weight, so by our arithmetic a pure 200 mg would hold about 175 mg of butyric acid equivalent per capsule, or about 350 mg at two. If the complex is less than all tributyrin, the figure is lower.

The PerfectAmino blend names 16 components with no individual weights: nine essential amino acids and seven nucleotide-type compounds, including uridine and adenosine triphosphate. At 25 mg in total, each averages under 2 mg. We found no gut trial of PerfectAmino.

What tributyrin is, and the brand’s framing

Butyrate is a fuel for the cells lining the colon. Taken by mouth as a free acid it has a strong odor and is absorbed high in the gut, which is why salts, coatings and fat-based forms exist. The brand describes tributyrin as a postbiotic form of butyrate that supports the gut barrier and microbiome, the idea being that the fat form carries butyrate further along the gut than a plain salt.

We found no release, absorption or colon-delivery data for this product. A 2026 review says outcomes with butyrate may depend on the delivery technology, the release profile and the dose (Caban et al., Digestive Diseases and Sciences, 2026); for this capsule the first two are not posted. No laboratory or certificate of analysis is named for this product.

The trial of the product itself

There is none. PubMed searches for BodyHealth or PerfectAmino with tributyrin or butyrate returned no trial of this formula. Of 16 tributyrin records with trial words that we read, 14 were animal studies, one was a protocol and one was a human crossover, described below.

The evidence for butyrate salts

The nearest evidence is trials of butyrate salts, set out in the ProButyrate guide. In 66 adults with IBS, 300 mg a day of microencapsulated sodium butyrate for 12 weeks eased pain during defecation, while abdominal pain and overall severity did not change significantly (Banasiewicz et al., Colorectal Disease, 2013). In 52 adults with type 2 diabetes and IBS-type symptoms, 1.5 g a day lowered abdominal pain, diarrhea and bloating (Panufnik et al., Scientific Reports, 2026). In 51 children with IBS, 500 mg a day of calcium butyrate gave treatment success in 73% against 3.8% on placebo (Cristofori et al., Journal of Pediatric Gastroenterology and Nutrition, 2025). A pediatric inflammatory bowel disease trial of sodium butyrate found no difference from placebo (Pietrzak et al., Nutrients, 2022).

Every one of those trials tested a butyrate salt, and none tested tributyrin in gut symptoms. The label supplies at most about 175 mg of butyrate-equivalent at one capsule and about 350 mg at two (our arithmetic). The 300 mg sodium butyrate dose is about 240 mg of butyrate and the pediatric calcium butyrate dose about 410 mg, so the label sits in that range; it is roughly 15% to 30% of the 1.5 g trial, about 1,190 mg. A 2020 review observed that butyric acid doses of 150 to 300 mg may be low against estimated demand (Banasiewicz et al., Przeglad Gastroenterologiczny, 2020). No study we found shows whether tributyrin at 200 mg reaches the colon as butyrate.

Tributyrin in people

The human studies of tributyrin itself are cancer dose studies. In a phase I study of 13 patients with solid tumors, tributyrin was given at 50 to 400 mg per kilogram of body weight a day for three weeks; plasma butyrate peaked at up to 0.45 mM and cleared within five hours, and the toxicities included nausea, vomiting, diarrhea and abdominal cramping (Conley et al., Clinical Cancer Research, 1998). A second study in 20 patients used 150 to 200 mg per kilogram three times a day and called it well tolerated (Edelman et al., Cancer Chemotherapy and Pharmacology, 2003). For an adult those doses run from several grams to tens of grams a day, and neither study looked at gut symptoms. A pilot of 4 g a day added to antidepressants exists only as a published protocol (Korenblik et al., BMJ Open, 2025). The one human crossover found tested a butyrate and hexanoate triglyceride, not plain tributyrin, in 12 men with overweight; a medium dose raised plasma butyrate and did not affect any secondary outcomes (van Deuren et al., Frontiers in Nutrition, 2022).

How to take BodyHealth Tributyrin

The brand’s directions are 1 to 2 capsules a day, with or without food, in the morning or the evening,. A bottle lasts 60 days at one capsule and 30 days at two. No trial sets a dose or duration for this form of butyrate; the salt trials ran 8 to 12 weeks.

Side effects and who should not take it

The panel image prints only the standard FDA statement that the product is not intended to diagnose, treat, cure or prevent any disease. No pregnancy, medication, age or medical-condition warning appears on the panel image, and the Amazon page has no safety information block. We read the panel image and not a back label. The reviews we read mention no side effect, though that is a small sample, and the cancer studies at grams a day reported nausea, vomiting, diarrhea and cramping at doses far above a capsule. The bottle’s free-from statement covers gluten and dairy only, with nothing on soy, egg, tree nuts, fish or sesame.

What the reviews say

On Amazon it holds 4.5 from 26 ratings: 62% five-star, 30% four-star, 8% three-star and none lower. Of the four reviews shown, three are marked as free product received through Amazon’s Vine program. The brand page shows an Okendo widget at 4.9 from 29 reviews, all flagged as verified buyers; it is the brand’s own widget, so the Amazon figure is the independent one. iHerb shows 4.6 from 5 reviews, and the Trustpilot page returned a human-verification page and could not be read.

The recurring praise is less bloating and gas, easy capsules and no odor or aftertaste. The recurring complaints are that it is too soon to tell, and, from one free-product reviewer, the cost.

Cost, subscription and refund terms

The brand’s subscription runs every 4, 6 or 8 weeks; we did not read its terms. Standard shipping is free on one-time orders of $35 or more. For comparison, Tesseract ProButyrate and CoreBiome Tributyrin are each $1.20 a day at their lowest label doses.

On direct orders the brand offers a 90-day money-back guarantee for an exchange or full refund, requested by phone or contact form. One opened bottle of each product is eligible and other returns must be sealed; there is no free return shipping label, and the guarantee does not apply to Amazon purchases. The Amazon listing is marked non-returnable, with damaged or defective items excepted.

Who BodyHealth Tributyrin is for

• Someone who wants butyrate in the tributyrin form and accepts that the tributyrin amount is not printed.
• Someone who wants a once-a-day capsule, since one capsule is the lowest label dose.
• Someone who will treat it as a test of 8 to 12 weeks, the length of the butyrate salt trials.

For a butyrate product with an amount printed for each form, the Double Butyrate guide covers 2,000 mg of calcium butyrate plus 200 mg of tributyrin. For loose stools with cramping, the IBS-D guide starts from the symptom, and the quiz matches a product to it.

The products in this catalog

Common questions

Sources

• Banasiewicz T, Krokowicz Ł, Stojcev Z, et al. "Microencapsulated sodium butyrate reduces the frequency of abdominal pain in patients with irritable bowel syndrome." Colorectal Disease, 2013;15(2):204–209. PMID 22738315. pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/22738315
• Panufnik P, Więcek M, Szwarc P, et al. "Effect of microencapsulated sodium butyrate on abdominal symptoms and carbohydrate metabolism in patients with type 2 diabetes: a randomized placebo-controlled trial." Scientific Reports, 2026;16(1). PMID 41974937. pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/41974937
• Cristofori F, Calabrese FM, Iacobellis I, et al. "Calcium butyrate efficacy in pediatric irritable bowel syndrome: Randomized placebo-controlled multiomics-based clinical trial." Journal of Pediatric Gastroenterology and Nutrition, 2025;81(3):551–561. PMID 40635319. doi.org/10.1002/jpn3.70154
• Pietrzak A, Banasiuk M, Szczepanik M, et al. "Sodium Butyrate Effectiveness in Children and Adolescents with Newly Diagnosed Inflammatory Bowel Diseases-Randomized Placebo-Controlled Multicenter Trial." Nutrients, 2022;14(16):3283. PMID 36014789. doi.org/10.3390/nu14163283
• Conley BA, Egorin MJ, Tait N, et al. "Phase I study of the orally administered butyrate prodrug, tributyrin, in patients with solid tumors." Clinical Cancer Research, 1998;4(3):629–634. PMID 9533530. pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/9533530. Edelman MJ, Bauer K, Khanwani S, et al. "Clinical and pharmacologic study of tributyrin: an oral butyrate prodrug." Cancer Chemotherapy and Pharmacology, 2003;51(5):439–444. PMID 12736763. doi.org/10.1007/s00280-003-0580-5
• Korenblik V, Korosi A, Brul S, et al. "Feasibility and acceptability of 8-week oral tributyrin supplementation as add on to antidepressant medication in patients with depression: a study protocol paper for a pilot, randomised controlled trial." BMJ Open, 2025;15(11):e108423. PMID 41248397. doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2025-108423
• van Deuren T, Smolders L, Hartog A, et al. "Butyrate and hexanoate-enriched triglycerides increase postprandial systemic butyrate and hexanoate in men with overweight/obesity: a double-blind placebo-controlled randomized crossover trial." Frontiers in Nutrition, 2022;9:1066950. PMID 36687671. doi.org/10.3389/fnut.2022.1066950
• Caban M, Pikus E, Czarnecka-Chrebelska K, et al. "Use of Sodium Butyrate and Its Microencapsulated Forms in Intestinal Diseases-Current Clinical Approach." Digestive Diseases and Sciences, 2026;71(5):1626–1639. PMID 41238998. doi.org/10.1007/s10620-025-09536-4
• Banasiewicz T, Domagalska D, Borycka-Kiciak K, et al. "Determination of butyric acid dosage based on clinical and experimental studies - a literature review." Przeglad Gastroenterologiczny, 2020;15(2):119–125. PMID 32550943. doi.org/10.5114/pg.2020.95556
• BodyHealth Tributyrin: Supplement Facts panel, directions, price and review widget on the brand page bodyhealth.com; refund policy bodyhealth.com/policies/refund-policy; Amazon listing: price, rating and star split amazon.com.