A randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled trial found fewer recurrent colorectal adenomas with berberine after polyp removal. This research is about polyp prevention, not cancer treatment.
What if a precancerous condition can be prevented with a substance that grows from plants in your backyard? I'm at the UNC Charlotte Botanical Gardens, and in woods like this are found plants like barberry, goldenseal, and Oregon grape. And in these plants is found an amazing substance called berberine.
Colon cancer, which kills 55,000 Americans a year, doesn't start off as colon cancer. It starts off as a precancerous polyp called an adenoma. My dad had them, and I'm ashamed to say I'm late for my colonoscopy and not looking forward to it, as you would expect.
The researchers asked a fascinating question based upon promising preclinical data: can we prevent precancerous polyps from returning with berberine? They conducted a multi-center, randomized, double-blinded, placebo-controlled clinical trial involving more than 1,100 people. That's about as rigorous a scientific study as you're going to get.
And among those patients included in the efficacy analysis, adenomas returned in 36% of them taking berberine and 47% among those taking placebo. That's an 11 point percentage difference.
But then researchers kept following these patients. And this is where it gets interesting. The 2025 follow-up found adenoma recurrence in 34.7% of those taking berberine versus 52.1% in the previous placebo group, suggesting that the difference persisted years after treatment ended.
Here's the research. You decide.
Educational research summary, not medical advice. Talk with your oncologist and pharmacist before starting, stopping or changing any treatment or supplement.