Tributyrin 300mg

Description

Tributyrin 300mg in liquid filled capsules, 30 servings at about 91 cents each. Tributyrin is glycerol with three butyric acid molecules esterified onto it, which is the whole reason the product exists. A tributyrin 300mg capsule delivers butyrate without the smell that makes sodium butyrate powder notorious, because the butyric acid stays locked up until enzymes release it.

What is in the capsule

Why a tributyrin 300mg capsule does not smell

Free butyric acid, the part of tributyrin 300mg that does the work, is the compound responsible for the smell of rancid butter and worse. Sodium butyrate powder carries it in the open, and anyone who has opened a bottle remembers it.

Esterifying the acid onto glycerol masks it completely. The ester has no appreciable odour, and lipases in the small intestine cleave it afterwards. That is a formulation difference with a measurable chemical basis, not a flavour claim.

The arithmetic between compound and active

Tributyrin is roughly 87 percent butyric acid equivalent by mass, so 300 mg of the triglyceride corresponds to about 260 mg of butyrate. Sodium butyrate is around 79 percent butyrate, with sodium making up the rest.

Both figures are printed here, because comparing a tributyrin 300mg capsule with a 500 mg sodium butyrate capsule on label weight alone compares two different things. Compound weight against active weight is the same arithmetic that runs through the minerals page.

What the published work covers, and what it does not

Most butyrate research is cell culture and animal work, much of it on colonocytes in concentrations with no simple human equivalent. The human trials that exist mostly used sodium butyrate, at 150 mg to 4 grams a day, measuring symptom questionnaires and endoscopic or histological scores in bowel conditions.

Trials on tributyrin specifically are few. That is a description of the evidence base, thin spots included, and not a claim about this bottle, which is a food under United States law.

Why a tributyrin 300mg capsule is liquid filled

The compound is an oil at room temperature, so a pressed tablet is not an option. Liquid filled capsules hold it without a carrier powder diluting the fill weight, which is why the label figure is the compound itself rather than a blend.

Sodium butyrate is a solid and gets pressed or encapsulated as a powder, often with a coating to delay release and reduce the smell. Both routes exist to solve the same problem, and a tributyrin 300mg capsule solves it chemically rather than with a coating that may or may not survive the stomach.

Butyrate from fibre, for context

Butyrate is produced in the colon by bacterial fermentation of fermentable fibre, in quantities measured in grams a day on a high fibre diet. A capsule is a small addition against that background.

Which is why the fibres on the gut health page are listed with their grams per serving and their type named, from partially hydrolysed guar gum to psyllium and resistant starch, rather than lumped together as fibre.

Storage

This is an oil in a capsule, so keep it cool and out of direct light. Peroxide value is on the certificate for the same reason it appears on a fish oil report, since an ester of a short chain fatty acid still oxidises.

Testing

An independent laboratory confirms identity, measures purity and runs peroxide value, heavy metals and microbials on every lot. Material outside specification is withdrawn and the report stays published, as explained in why we publish the batch that failed.

Reference reading

Short chain fatty acids have no established intake reference, so there is no official figure to measure a capsule against. The NIH Office of Dietary Supplements fact sheet library is free and shows how a federal reviewer handles that kind of gap. Your batch certificate is published with the listing.