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Efficacy and Safety of Berberine Alone for Several Metabolic Disorders: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis of Randomized Clinical Trials

Ye Y, Liu X, Wu N, Han Y, Wang J, Yu Y, Chen Q

Frontiers in pharmacology 2021 12:653887

Bibliography

PubMed: PMID 33981233
PubMed Central: PMC8107691
DOI: 10.3389/fphar.2021.653887
Funding: Supported by Hubei health/science/education programs, Xianning science funding and Hubei University of Science and Technology.
Competing interests: The authors declared no competing interests in the publication.

Design	Systematic review and meta-analysis
Model	Published human studies
Sample	18 eligible reports
Intervention	Evidence synthesis; interventions and comparators vary across included studies
Duration	No new treatment; included-study durations vary
Endpoints	Pooled clinical or metabolic outcomes; Risk of bias and heterogeneity; Adverse-event reporting

This review focused on berberine used alone and reported metabolic signals across glucose, insulin resistance and lipids.

This review focused on berberine used alone and reported metabolic signals across glucose, insulin resistance and lipids.

The standardized-effect direction depends on the authors’ coding. Heterogeneous populations and small trials constrain certainty.

Editorial review

Last verified 22 October 2026