TRADE NAME: Evodiamine

Chemical Name: Evodia rutaecarpa

Botanical Name: Fructus Evodiae

TYPE OF SUPPLEMENT: Weight Loss

WHAT IT IS:

Evodiamine is one of three alkaline chemical components of the Chinese herb, Wu-Chu-Yu, or Fructus Evodiae. Used for centuries in China for digestive problems such as nausea and upper abdominal pain, it has recently been touted as an effective thermogenic weight supplement.

HOW IT WORKS:

Known for centuries in China as a “hot” herb, evodiamine works primarily by stimulating vanilloid receptor agonistic activities to raise body temperature and suppress appetite. This is comparable to the action of capsaicin – the active ingredient in spicy foods known for their anti-obese characteristics – without the spicy taste and resulting gastrointestinal irritation that hot foods can cause.

Tests on lab animals showed that both the perirenal fat and epididymal fat mass decreased significantly with evodiamine use. Body weight, serum-free fatty acid levels, and total lipds, triglyceride, and cholesterol also were significantly reduced. Specific binding in brown adipose tissue mitochondria, a biological index of enhanced heat production, significantly increased. While skin temperature increased dramatically, however, the body core temperature remained the same, indicating not only weight loss enhanced heat production but also from the body’s cooling activities. So evodiamine would induce both heat loss and heat production at the same time, increasing its thermogenic properties.

Other tests indicate that evodiamine works as an appetite suppressant by slowing gastric emptying and gastrointestinal transit, thus cutting calorie intake.

Primary Effects:
Evodiamine is a thermogenic herb that induces both heat production and heat loss – a unique effect that helps burn calories in two different ways. At the same time, it creates a slight appetite suppressant effect by slightly slowing the gastrointestinal transit of ingested foods. Both of these actions suggest an effective supplement for weight loss.

Effective Dose level:
Dosage recommendations range between 1.5 and 5 grams per day for optimal weight loss. No human studies have been done to date to confirm this.

Supplement Conflicts: None noted currently.

Side Effects:
Although no side effects have been reported, and studies on humans have yet to be conducted, the alkalinity of evodiamine makes it slightly toxic, and it has traditionally been recommended that pregnant women do not use it.