Goldenseal: Benefits, Root Powder, Tea, Dosage & Side Effects

Break open a dried goldenseal root and you'll find it's a vivid golden yellow inside. Chew a piece and the bitterness hits first, followed by a bite that sets your mouth watering, and that bitter taste is where goldenseal's story starts.1

Long before modern science took notice, goldenseal was North America's great bitter tonic. Cherokee healers used it for the skin and eyes and Iroquois healers for digestion, and by the 1800s the Eclectic physicians had made it one of their leading remedies, official in the U.S. Pharmacopeia. Over time they came to rely on it above all for digestion and for the mucous membranes that line the mouth, throat and gut.21 When they saw a heavy, sluggish stomach or congestion that wouldn't clear, they looked past the symptom to the tissue underneath, which they described as tired and toneless, and that's where they aimed goldenseal.1

When people keep reaching for the same remedy for more than two centuries, it's worth asking why, and modern science is finally starting to answer. Lab studies are showing how the whole root works, and the first studies in people have begun to measure what it does.36

Did you know?

• Native peoples used the bright-yellow juice of the root to color their clothing and paint their faces.1

• Goldenseal's single red fruit looks like a raspberry, which earned the plant another old name: ground raspberry.1

• Goldenseal supplements ranked among the 20 top-selling natural products through the 2010s.7

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What is goldenseal root?

Above ground, goldenseal is a modest little plant, 6 to 12 inches tall, with two broad, lobed leaves, a small white flower and a single red fruit. The medicine is underneath, in a knotted rhizome that's bright yellow inside, with long, fibrous roots.1 In one carefully tested root product, each gram held 28.9 mg of berberine, 18.6 mg of hydrastine and 0.73 mg of canadine, so berberine made up about 3% of the root by weight.6 Berberine is the loudest voice in that mix, but it never works alone, and that's why goldenseal isn't simply berberine in a different bottle: you're getting the whole root, hydrastine, canadine and all.

The leaves add something the root carries less of: flavonoids that help berberine do its work inside bacteria. That's why researchers studying the plant have suggested blending root and leaf.102

A short history of goldenseal

The Cherokee used goldenseal on the skin and for sore eyes, and the Iroquois used it for digestive complaints.2 The Catawba and other Native peoples used it too, and by the 1700s, European settlers were gathering the root themselves.11 In 1804, the Lewis and Clark expedition met people who washed inflamed eyes with a tea brewed from this yellow root, and the physician Benjamin Smith Barton wrote about it too, as a bitter tonic and an eyewash.1

Then came the Eclectic physicians, the American doctors who built their practice on native plants. From about 1847, and especially after the Eclectic Dispensatory appeared in 1852, goldenseal was one of their leading remedies,1 and their descriptions read like a map of the body. They wrote that goldenseal "exerts its chief action upon the mucous and glandular structures," that it "sharpens the appetite and aids digestion," and that "beginning at the mouth, its beneficial action may be traced throughout the alimentary canal."1

Heal Your Cells, the book I wrote with Dr. Will Cole, follows the same thread across continents. Native American healers used goldenseal as an immune and digestive tonic and European herbalists prized barberry bark for the liver and gallbladder, which means healers who never shared notes landed on the same berberine-rich plants for gut, liver and pancreatic wellbeing.12

Goldenseal has no classical place in Chinese medicine or Ayurveda, since it's native only to North America, but its main alkaloid does. Berberine comes from plants used for centuries in Chinese and Ayurvedic medicine to support digestion and immunity.12 In Chinese medicine, berberine is very cooling to the body. I've noticed some patients respond far better to berberine than others, and for someone who already runs cold, I don't want to push their body cooler still.13 If you tend to run cold yourself, keep that in mind as you read goldenseal's profile in those warming-and-cooling terms:113

What is goldenseal good for?

How goldenseal works in your body

If your stomach sits like a brick after a meal, or leaves you bloated and hunting for something sweet, one reason is that your digestion never got its cue to start, and that cue begins on your tongue. Another is a gut whose microbes have drifted out of balance. Goldenseal works on both, and it does most of its work right where it lands. Here's how:

The pump bacteria use to push berberine back out works like a bouncer at the door, and the leaf's flavonoids hold that bouncer back so berberine stays inside the germ and keeps working. That's what it means for the whole plant to work as a team.

Antibiotics can save lives in an emergency, but they don't just clear the infection: they also wipe out the beneficial bacteria that live in your gut.30 I've needed an antibiotic only once since I was about 18: a month of IV treatment for a spinal infection.30 For the everyday care of your gut, I reach for food and herbs first,12 and bitter herbs have done that job for centuries.1

Goldenseal benefits

Goldenseal's benefits start in your gut and on the mucous membranes, where tradition put it to work, and reach out from there to blood sugar, skin and immune balance. Here they are, starting with digestion:

Goldenseal for digestion and gut health

Bitter foods and digestive bitters work on the same signal goldenseal does, and that matters if you fight a sweet tooth. I've often found, working with patients, that when you add more bitter and sour flavors to the diet, cravings for sweets start to decrease.28 And when I'm working with a patient whose vitamin D levels are still low on supplements, it's often a gallbladder and liver issue, where the body doesn't have enough bile flow, so I might have them add bitter foods like artichokes and more bitter greens.28

The Eclectic physicians compared goldenseal with gentian, the classic bitter, and found it best suited to tired, weakened mucous tissue all along the digestive tract.1 They gave it for chronic gastritis, for a stomach and bowel coated with mucus, and for stubborn constipation, and they were clear about when it fit: lingering, low-grade trouble, never hot, acute inflammation.1 Goldenseal was their herb for a fire that had burned down to embers, not one that was still roaring. For indigestion, they gave a liquid goldenseal preparation in 10-drop doses before each meal and at bedtime.1

Goldenseal for diarrhea

The Eclectic physicians also used goldenseal as a tonic in recovery from diarrhea and dysentery,1 and berberine, its main alkaloid, has trials of its own. In a randomized trial of 165 adults with acute diarrhea, a single 400 mg dose of berberine stopped diarrhea within 24 hours in 42% of those infected with a toxin-producing strain of E. coli, against 20% in the comparison group. That's about twice as many people whose diarrhea stopped within a day, and no side effects were noted.27 In a larger placebo-controlled trial of 400 adults, though, tetracycline, an antibiotic, did more than berberine for cholera, and neither beat placebo for other watery diarrhea.34

Berberine has been tested for irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) too, which matters if you live with it. In a placebo-controlled trial of 132 adults with IBS with diarrhea, those who took 200 mg of berberine twice a day for 8 weeks had less frequent diarrhea, less frequent belly pain and less urgency than those on a placebo.32 Does that mean goldenseal stops diarrhea? Those results belong to berberine, since goldenseal itself hasn't been tested for diarrhea, so when you reach for goldenseal here, you're leaning on the Eclectic tradition and its main alkaloid's own trials. Our guide to how to stop diarrhea covers the food-first steps.

Goldenseal, berberine and SIBO

If you've been told you have SIBO, small intestinal bacterial overgrowth, you're dealing with a microbial balance problem in the wrong part of the gut, and berberine, goldenseal's main alkaloid, leads my approach to it. In my SIBO Protocol, berberine is the first herbal antimicrobial on the list, at 500 mg two or three times a day,33 and it supports gut and liver detox too.12

Herbs have also held their own against the standard drug. In a review of the charts of 104 people with SIBO at one hospital, where people chose their own treatment, herbal formulas did about as well as rifaximin, the usual antibiotic: breath tests returned to normal in 46% of those on herbs and 34% of those on rifaximin, a gap that could still be chance. And among people rifaximin hadn't helped, 8 of 14 cleared with herbs,35 which is encouraging if rifaximin hasn't worked for you, though those formulas drew their berberine from other plants rather than goldenseal.35 The SIBO Protocol lays out the whole plan, from the herbs to the steps that keep it from coming back.

The stomach and H. pylori

The old and the new fit together well here, since the Eclectic physicians called goldenseal "very valuable in gastric ulcer,"1 and the lab results above show its root holding back H. pylori, the very bacterium tied to ulcers. For everyday stomach support, start with our guide to gut health.

Goldenseal for the mouth, throat and sinuses

If you've ever had a canker sore that won't quit or a sore throat that drags on, that's exactly the kind of trouble the Eclectic physicians used goldenseal for. King's American Dispensatory, their main reference, put it plainly: "Golden seal is a valuable local agent in affections of the nose and throat."1 For canker sores, it was "equaled only by coptis and phytolacca," two other traditional herbs. They used it for many kinds of sore throat and for sinus and throat congestion that hangs on, whether the membranes ran with thick mucus or felt dry and parched.1

In the lab, compounds from the root were active against Streptococcus mutans, the main bacterium behind cavities, and Fusobacterium nucleatum, which is tied to gum disease. Berberine was the strongest of them.5 Your mouth is where your gut begins, so keeping your oral microbiome in balance is part of the same work goldenseal does further down.

The traditional way to use it here was local, right on the tissue. If you've ever felt strong black tea pucker your mouth, you know what an astringent does, and the Eclectic physicians counted goldenseal as a mild one. The simplest way to use it today is cooled goldenseal tea, swished around your mouth and spit out. For more support, see our guides to gingivitis and sore throat remedies.

For the sinuses, the Eclectic physicians applied goldenseal to the nose and throat as a toning remedy for the mucous membranes, so its use here is traditional.1 Today it's sold as a supplement for colds, other upper respiratory infections and hay fever.8 When a cold has you stuffed up, our natural cold remedies guide has steps you can start today.

Does goldenseal help blood sugar?

If you take metformin, this study is worth a close look, because the researchers mainly wanted to see how goldenseal and metformin get along in your body, and blood sugar was only a bonus measure. Each person took a single 3.3-gram dose of the root, then 1.1 grams three times a day for 28 days, which works out to about 95 mg of berberine a day from the whole root.6 HbA1c, your average blood sugar over about three months, fell over that month even though it wasn't what they set out to study, while fasting glucose, glycated albumin and insulin resistance didn't change.6 Everyone tolerated the root well, with no serious side effects.6

Berberine, the root's main alkaloid, is one of my go-to herbal tools for blood sugar.12 In a review of 37 randomized trials of berberine in people with type 2 diabetes, the 31 trials that measured HbA1c (2,683 people) found it 0.63 percentage points lower than in the comparison groups. Berberine also brought no more side effects or low blood sugar.36 For the food side of the picture, our guide to normal blood sugar covers the habits that steady it. And when you take goldenseal, you get that berberine with company: hydrastine, canadine and the rest of the root.

Goldenseal for skin, wounds and immunity

The Cherokee used goldenseal on the skin,2 and modern research has started to show why. Staph bacteria, including MRSA, the drug-resistant strain behind many stubborn staph infections, use a chemical signaling system, a kind of group text, to tell each other when to switch on the toxins that damage skin. In the lab, goldenseal leaf extract stopped MRSA's growth, and at lower amounts it quieted that signaling system and protected human skin cells from the toxin's damage.3 Canadine and hydrastine did nothing against MRSA on their own, which points to berberine and the leaf's other compounds working together.3

The extract needed 75 micrograms of berberine per milliliter to stop MRSA, against 150 for pure berberine, so it did the job with half as much berberine because the leaf's other compounds made up the difference. The researchers concluded that their data "lend support for the traditional use" of goldenseal for skin infections.3

The same pattern shows up in wounds: in a study of 24 rats in four groups of 6, burns infected with drug-resistant Pseudomonas closed faster over 10 days with a standardized goldenseal fraction than with no treatment. The fraction went on as a gel or was given by mouth, and the gel did best. The healing skin also held more collagen, the protein that knits a wound back together, and lower levels of the inflammatory messengers TNF-α and IL-1β.22 Pseudomonas has its own version of that group text, and in lab cultures, the same fraction cut the expression of two of its signaling genes by 95.3% and 84.8%.22 (For everyday cuts and scrapes, start with our wound care guide.)

Native American healers used goldenseal as an immune tonic,12 and early research shows it doing two things that sound like opposites, turning an immune response up in one study and calming an overactive one in another. Rats given goldenseal root extract for 6 weeks made more IgM, the body's first-response antibody, in the first 2 weeks after meeting a new antigen.23 In mouse immune cells primed for inflammation, goldenseal turned down four immune messengers, TNF-α, IL-6, IL-10 and IL-12, and the higher the dose, the more it turned them down. The researchers suggested its historical use may work by calming that response.24 Goldenseal extracts also slowed the growth of H1N1 flu virus in cells at high concentrations.31 Our guides to echinacea and elderberry cover two more immune herbs.

Goldenseal root powder, tea and tincture: how to use it

There's no single established dose for goldenseal, so the amounts below lean on two guides: what the Eclectic physicians wrote down and what the human studies used.167

• Capsules: about 1 gram of root or root extract, two or three times a day, the amounts used in the human studies.67

• Root powder: 10 to 30 grains, about 0.65 to 1.9 grams, per dose, the Eclectic range; they gave the larger doses right after meals.1

• Tea: cut root steeped in hot water, the traditional form for the mouth and throat. The Eclectic infusion was 1 ounce of root to a pint of water, taken ½ to 2 fluid ounces at a time, and it doubles as a rinse once it cools.1

• Tincture: 1 to 2 fluid drams per dose in the Eclectic texts, about 4 to 7 milliliters; follow the strength on a modern label.1

If you're deciding between forms, start with the taste. Tea and tincture let you taste the bitterness, which is your digestion's first cue to get going, while capsules skip your tongue and deliver the root straight to the gut, where bitter receptors also sit.28 So if you don't mind the taste, a tea or tincture reaches both your tongue and your gut.

How to choose goldenseal

Buy cultivated or forest-farmed goldenseal root from a seller who tests for identity. It matters because demand for the root has cost the wild plant: by 1898, the Eclectic writers noted that "the plant disappears as soon as the ground is disturbed by the settler,"1 and today it's listed as vulnerable, with international trade in the wild root controlled.11 Forest farming, growing it under the trees where it grows wild, is one way growers are bringing it back,11 and every cultivated root you buy is one that wasn't dug from the wild.

• Cultivated or forest-farmed root: the label or the seller should say how it was grown.11

• Identity testing: when researchers tested 35 goldenseal supplements, 3 were mixed with other plants or weren't goldenseal at all, matching barberry, Oregon grape and Chinese goldthread instead.37 Ask for a batch test.

• Its own alkaloids: labs confirm goldenseal by its alkaloid profile, and finding palmatine, coptisine or jatrorrhizine signals other plants mixed in.38

Goldenseal side effects and who should skip it

Pregnancy, breastfeeding and newborns. Skip goldenseal while you're pregnant or breastfeeding, and never give it to a baby. In lab and rat studies, berberine pushed bilirubin off the protein that carries it in the blood, which is the step that puts jaundiced newborns at risk, and no human safety data exist for goldenseal in pregnancy or nursing.9418

At the amounts studied. In its human studies, up to 3.3 grams a day for as long as 28 days, people tolerated goldenseal well, with no serious side effects. Abdominal cramping was among the few minor complaints.67 In one study of 20 adults, 2 had raised liver enzymes after 14 days of goldenseal, and their levels returned to normal within a week of stopping.17 Separately, rats and male mice fed large amounts of the root powder every day for two years developed liver tumors.42 So use it in courses of a few weeks, the length studied in people, since the safety of longer use isn't known.8

Eyes, nose and sun. Don't make homemade goldenseal eyewashes, however tempting the history. Your eyes need sterile preparations, and in the lab, berberine plus UVA light severely damaged human lens cells.43 It's the same with your nose: keep nasal rinses to plain saline, since goldenseal powder hasn't been tested in the nose. And if you spend time in the sun, keep in mind that in one documented case, a woman taking a blend of ginseng, goldenseal and bee pollen developed a sun-triggered rash.44

Stop and see a doctor if your skin or the whites of your eyes turn yellow, your urine turns dark, or a rash appears after sun exposure. And see one the same day for a UTI with fever or back pain.

The bottom line

Goldenseal: frequently asked questions

References

1. Felter HW, Lloyd JU. King's American Dispensatory. 18th ed., 3rd rev. Cincinnati: Ohio Valley Co.; 1898. Hydrastis (U.S.P.)—Hydrastis. Transcribed at Henriette's Herbal Homepage (archived copy, January 2025).
2. Junio HA, Sy-Cordero AA, Ettefagh KA, Burns JT, Micko KT, Graf TN, et al. Synergy-directed fractionation of botanical medicines: a case study with goldenseal (Hydrastis canadensis). J Nat Prod. 2011;74(7):1621-9. doi:10.1021/np200336g. PMID:21661731
3. Cech NB, Junio HA, Ackermann LW, Kavanaugh JS, Horswill AR. Quorum quenching and antimicrobial activity of goldenseal (Hydrastis canadensis) against methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA). Planta Med. 2012;78(14):1556-61. doi:10.1055/s-0032-1315042. PMID:22814821
4. Mahady GB, Pendland SL, Stoia A, Chadwick LR. In vitro susceptibility of Helicobacter pylori to isoquinoline alkaloids from Sanguinaria canadensis and Hydrastis canadensis. Phytother Res. 2003;17(3):217-21. doi:10.1002/ptr.1108. PMID:12672149
5. Hwang BY, Roberts SK, Chadwick LR, Wu CD, Kinghorn AD. Antimicrobial constituents from goldenseal (the Rhizomes of Hydrastis canadensis) against selected oral pathogens. Planta Med. 2003;69(7):623-7. doi:10.1055/s-2003-41115. PMID:12898417
6. Nguyen JT, Arian CM, Tanna RS, Cherel MG, Layton ME, White JR, et al. The Pharmacokinetic Interaction Between Metformin and the Natural Product Goldenseal Is Metformin Dose-Dependent: A Three-Arm Crossover Study in Adults With Type 2 Diabetes. Clin Transl Sci. 2025;18(2):e70120. doi:10.1111/cts.70120. PMID:39943692
7. Nguyen JT, Tian DD, Tanna RS, Hadi DL, Bansal S, Calamia JC, et al. Assessing Transporter-Mediated Natural Product-Drug Interactions Via In vitro-In Vivo Extrapolation: Clinical Evaluation With a Probe Cocktail. Clin Pharmacol Ther. 2021;109(5):1342-1352. doi:10.1002/cpt.2107. PMID:33174626
8. National Center for Complementary and Integrative Health. Goldenseal. National Institutes of Health. Accessed October 22, 2026.
9. Chan E. Displacement of bilirubin from albumin by berberine. Biol Neonate. 1993;63(4):201-8. doi:10.1159/000243932. PMID:8513024
10. Ettefagh KA, Burns JT, Junio HA, Kaatz GW, Cech NB. Goldenseal (Hydrastis canadensis L.) extracts synergistically enhance the antibacterial activity of berberine via efflux pump inhibition. Planta Med. 2011;77(8):835-40. doi:10.1055/s-0030-1250606. PMID:21157683
11. Houston E, Burkhart EP, Zuiderveen G, Chen X. Identification of Goldenseal (Hydrastis canadensis L.) Habitat and Indicators in Pennsylvania, USA: The Influence of Climate and Site on In Situ Conservation of an Edge of Range Plant Species. Ecol Evol. 2025;15(3):e71050. doi:10.1002/ece3.71050. PMID:40027423
12. Axe J, Cole W. Heal Your Cells. Avery; 2026. ISBN 9798217181353 (Native American use of goldenseal as an immune and digestive tonic; berberine for blood sugar, microbial cleansing and gut and liver detox; berberine plants in Chinese and Ayurvedic medicine; herbal therapies before pharmaceuticals for everyday concerns).
13. Axe J, Buhler B. The Testosterone, Weight Loss & Hormone Lies Your Doctor Never Told You | Brigham Buhler. The Dr. Josh Axe Show. 2026 (Dr. Axe on patients' differing response to berberine, at 26:49, and berberine as very cooling in Chinese medicine, at 26:57; YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sx-sxJmzO_M&t=1609s).
14. Gurley BJ, Gardner SF, Hubbard MA, Williams DK, Gentry WB, Khan IA, et al. In vivo effects of goldenseal, kava kava, black cohosh, and valerian on human cytochrome P450 1A2, 2D6, 2E1, and 3A4/5 phenotypes. Clin Pharmacol Ther. 2005;77(5):415-26. doi:10.1016/j.clpt.2005.01.009. PMID:15900287
15. Gurley BJ, Swain A, Hubbard MA, Hartsfield F, Thaden J, Williams DK, et al. Supplementation with goldenseal (Hydrastis canadensis), but not kava kava (Piper methysticum), inhibits human CYP3A activity in vivo. Clin Pharmacol Ther. 2008;83(1):61-9. doi:10.1038/sj.clpt.6100222. PMID:17495878
16. Gurley BJ, Swain A, Hubbard MA, Williams DK, Barone G, Hartsfield F, et al. Clinical assessment of CYP2D6-mediated herb-drug interactions in humans: effects of milk thistle, black cohosh, goldenseal, kava kava, St. John's wort, and Echinacea. Mol Nutr Food Res. 2008;52(7):755-63. doi:10.1002/mnfr.200600300. PMID:18214849
17. Gurley BJ, Swain A, Barone GW, Williams DK, Breen P, Yates CR, et al. Effect of goldenseal (Hydrastis canadensis) and kava kava (Piper methysticum) supplementation on digoxin pharmacokinetics in humans. Drug Metab Dispos. 2007;35(2):240-5. doi:10.1124/dmd.106.012708. PMID:17079360
18. Sandhu RS, Prescilla RP, Simonelli TM, Edwards DJ. Influence of goldenseal root on the pharmacokinetics of indinavir. J Clin Pharmacol. 2003;43(11):1283-8. doi:10.1177/0091270003258660. PMID:14551183
19. Gupta PK, Barone G, Gurley BJ, Fifer EK, Hendrickson HP. Hydrastine pharmacokinetics and metabolism after a single oral dose of goldenseal (Hydrastis canadensis) to humans. Drug Metab Dispos. 2015;43(4):534-52. doi:10.1124/dmd.114.059410. PMID:25609220
20. Yu Y, Hao G, Zhang Q, Hua W, Wang M, Zhou W, et al. Berberine induces GLP-1 secretion through activation of bitter taste receptor pathways. Biochem Pharmacol. 2015;97(2):173-7. doi:10.1016/j.bcp.2015.07.012. PMID:26206195
21. Cwikla C, Schmidt K, Matthias A, Bone KM, Lehmann R, Tiralongo E. Investigations into the antibacterial activities of phytotherapeutics against Helicobacter pylori and Campylobacter jejuni. Phytother Res. 2010;24(5):649-56. doi:10.1002/ptr.2933. PMID:19653313
22. Turkey MS, Nazeam JA, Sherbiny FF, Alnasser SM, Abdo W, Al-Noshokaty TM, et al. Bioactive goldenseal (Hydrastis canadensis) fraction suppresses multidrug-resistant Pseudomonas aeruginosa in a rat burn wound model: oral and topical administration. Sci Rep. 2026;16(1):27506. doi:10.1038/s41598-026-60341-z. PMID:42686804
23. Rehman J, Dillow JM, Carter SM, Chou J, Le B, Maisel AS. Increased production of antigen-specific immunoglobulins G and M following in vivo treatment with the medicinal plants Echinacea angustifolia and Hydrastis canadensis. Immunol Lett. 1999;68(2-3):391-5. doi:10.1016/s0165-2478(99)00085-1. PMID:10424448
24. Clement-Kruzel S, Hwang SA, Kruzel MC, Dasgupta A, Actor JK. Immune modulation of macrophage pro-inflammatory response by goldenseal and Astragalus extracts. J Med Food. 2008;11(3):493-8. doi:10.1089/jmf.2008.0044. PMID:18800897
25. Abidi P, Chen W, Kraemer FB, Li H, Liu J. The medicinal plant goldenseal is a natural LDL-lowering agent with multiple bioactive components and new action mechanisms. J Lipid Res. 2006;47(10):2134-47. doi:10.1194/jlr.M600195-JLR200. PMID:16885565
26. Tzeng TJ, Liu TY, Lin CW, Chang PE, Liao PX, Yang WY, et al. Effects of Dietary Inclusion of Dry Hydrastis canadensis on Laying Performance, Egg Quality, Serum Biochemical Parameters and Cecal Microbiota in Laying Hens. Animals (Basel). 2021;11(5):1381. doi:10.3390/ani11051381. PMID:34067964
27. Rabbani GH, Butler T, Knight J, Sanyal SC, Alam K. Randomized controlled trial of berberine sulfate therapy for diarrhea due to enterotoxigenic Escherichia coli and Vibrio cholerae. J Infect Dis. 1987;155(5):979-84. doi:10.1093/infdis/155.5.979. PMID:3549923
28. Axe J. 10 Biblical Superfoods That Can Add Years to Your Life. The Dr. Josh Axe Show, Ep. 393. 2026 (bitter receptors and the release of bile, acid and enzymes, at 25:38; bile flow and low vitamin D, at 26:12; bitter receptors in the gut and the release of GLP-1, at 26:41; bitter and sour flavors and sweet cravings, at 27:52; YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9AnNi1umufc&t=1538s).
29. Zhang Y, Gu Y, Ren H, Wang S, Zhong H, Zhao X, et al. Gut microbiome-related effects of berberine and probiotics on type 2 diabetes (the PREMOTE study). Nat Commun. 2020;11(1):5015. doi:10.1038/s41467-020-18414-8. PMID:33024120
30. Axe J. The Shocking Reason Your Anxiety, Brain Fog & Bloating May Start in Your Gut. The Dr. Josh Axe Show. 2026 (antibiotics in an emergency and the gut's beneficial bacteria, at 27:55; his month of IV antibiotics for a spinal infection, at 28:51; YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yumJczZ1_JM&t=1675s).
31. Cecil CE, Davis JM, Cech NB, Laster SM. Inhibition of H1N1 influenza A virus growth and induction of inflammatory mediators by the isoquinoline alkaloid berberine and extracts of goldenseal (Hydrastis canadensis). Int Immunopharmacol. 2011;11(11):1706-14. doi:10.1016/j.intimp.2011.06.002. PMID:21683808
32. Chen C, Tao C, Liu Z, Lu M, Pan Q, Zheng L, et al. A Randomized Clinical Trial of Berberine Hydrochloride in Patients with Diarrhea-Predominant Irritable Bowel Syndrome. Phytother Res. 2015;29(11):1822-7. doi:10.1002/ptr.5475. PMID:26400188
33. Axe J. The SIBO Protocol. DrAxe.com protocol; 2026 (four phases over 60 days: prepare, clear, restore, prevent; causes ranked, slow motility first; Top 8 SIBO remedies, berberine ranked first at 500 mg two to three times daily; two antimicrobials at a time, rotated).
34. Khin-Maung-U, Myo-Khin, Nyunt-Nyunt-Wai, Aye-Kyaw, Tin-U. Clinical trial of berberine in acute watery diarrhoea. Br Med J (Clin Res Ed). 1985;291(6509):1601-5. doi:10.1136/bmj.291.6509.1601. PMID:3935203
35. Chedid V, Dhalla S, Clarke JO, Roland BC, Dunbar KB, Koh J, et al. Herbal therapy is equivalent to rifaximin for the treatment of small intestinal bacterial overgrowth. Glob Adv Health Med. 2014;3(3):16-24. doi:10.7453/gahmj.2014.019. PMID:24891990
36. Xie W, Su F, Wang G, Peng Z, Xu Y, Zhang Y, et al. Glucose-lowering effect of berberine on type 2 diabetes: A systematic review and meta-analysis. Front Pharmacol. 2022;13:1015045. doi:10.3389/fphar.2022.1015045. PMID:36467075
37. Wallace ED, Oberlies NH, Cech NB, Kellogg JJ. Detection of adulteration in Hydrastis canadensis (goldenseal) dietary supplements via untargeted mass spectrometry-based metabolomics. Food Chem Toxicol. 2018;120:439-447. doi:10.1016/j.fct.2018.07.033. PMID:30031041
38. Weber HA, Zart MK, Hodges AE, Molloy HM, O'Brien BM, Moody LA, et al. Chemical comparison of goldenseal (Hydrastis canadensis L.) root powder from three commercial suppliers. J Agric Food Chem. 2003;51(25):7352-8. doi:10.1021/jf034339r. PMID:14640583
39. Axe J. Top 50 Healing Herbs & Essential Oils: A Field Guide to God's Pharmacy. DrAxe.com protocol; 2026 ("Natural Does Not Mean Risk-Free" safety and interactions page).
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