Butyrate is a short-chain fatty acid that gut bacteria make when they ferment fiber. It is sold as a supplement, often as sodium butyrate, sometimes in capsules made to release in the gut.
Also known as: sodium butyrate, butyric acid, tributyrin.
Butyrate has no intake value. A child obesity trial used sodium butyrate at 20 mg per kg of body weight a day for 6 months (Coppola 2022). These are study protocols, not a recommendation.
It is sold in the US as a dietary supplement. Under the 1994 dietary supplement law (DSHEA), FDA does not approve dietary supplements before they are marketed, and the maker, not FDA, is responsible for safety and labeling.
What studies show: in a 6-month trial of 54 children aged 5 to 17 with obesity, all on standard care, 96% of those given sodium butyrate lowered their BMI score by at least 0.25 SD, against 56% on placebo. Waist size, insulin, insulin resistance and some inflammation markers also fell more than on placebo. Two children had brief mild nausea and headache in the first month (Coppola 2022). In 140 people with Crohn's disease or ulcerative colitis, a gut-release butyrate added to usual treatment was followed by lower disease activity and calprotectin in Crohn's, a borderline drop in calprotectin in ulcerative colitis, and better quality of life in both (Facchin 2026).
Both trials were in specific groups (children with obesity, people with IBD), so they do not show an effect in healthy adults. The sources here do not describe drug interactions.
We could not find a single published half-life or time to peak for butyrate that applies to a supplement dose, so we do not list one. Much of it is meant to act in the gut.
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