Ursolic acid dosage and evidence
Written by Aaron CuhaReviewed Sep 2026
The short answer
Ursolic acid did not change lifespan at the dose tested in mice, in the same test where acarbose made male mice live 16 to 17 percent longer. The whole human record is one eight-week study in 16 men. Body fat percentage went down. Lean tissue, like muscle, did not change.
Evidence grade for Ursolic acid: Limited. The rule: people have taken it in a published study, but fewer than 100 of them. The sum on this page: 1 completed trial, 16 people given it. A grade counts how much has been done to people, not whether it works.
- People given it
- 16
- Human studies
- 1
- Found nothing
- 1
Dose
No human dose established
Amounts that were given in studies sit in Human evidence on this page. None of them is a personal dose.
1 completed trial, 16 people given it
6 effects reported, 4 unwanted, 2 wanted, by people using it, not a trial
Goal pages: Fat loss and metabolism, Muscle and strength, Ageing and longevity, Hormones and growth hormone
In plain English
In plain English, from Aaron
This is how I would explain it to a friend. The evidence, with the numbers, is further down the page.
Ursolic acid is a plant compound from apple peel, rosemary and holy basil. It is sold as a muscle-building supplement. That claim comes from mouse studies from one lab.
What people take it for
- Building muscle.
- Losing belly fat.
- Less soreness and swelling.
What studies in people showed
One study in people exists. It had 16 young men doing weight training for eight weeks. The group taking it lost some body fat percentage. Lean tissue, the thing it is sold for, did not change. With nine men taking it, that proves little. Now the mice. A US program fed it to mice for life. They did not live longer.
What people report
Reports, not study results
The good
- Some people describe looking fuller and a bit leaner around the belly over about six weeks.
- Several people say general aches and swelling eased.
The bad
- Many people say little or nothing happened.
- The effects people describe are small at best.
- You need a lot of small capsules, and people complain about that.
- Almost nobody has taken it long enough to report side effects. That is a lack of reports, not proof it is safe.
Where these come from: T-Nation and LongeCity supplement threads, read in September 2026, plus the one study on this page. This is a thin base. Forum reports are not from a study.
My bottom line
It has been tested in nine people who took it. Lift, eat your protein, and skip this until someone runs a real study.
An opinion, not a finding. I am a coach, not a doctor.
What it has been measured to do
Measured in people
Goals Ursolic acid has been tested for in people, biggest studies first. We count only what the studies on this page say, so the real numbers may be higher.
- Losing weight16 people · 1 study · 1 found nothing
- Losing fat specifically16 people · 1 study · 1 found nothing
- Keeping or building muscle16 people · 1 study · 1 found nothing
- Growth hormone and IGF-116 people · 1 study · 1 found nothing
What people using it report
Real people telling you what happened to them. Nobody checked it, and the people who post are not a fair sample, so it cannot prove anything works. It is still the best guide on this page to what people actually do with Ursolic acid, what they expect, and what goes wrong. The full account, including the negative reports, is below.
Animal and lab work, not yet tested in people
Real results, but from animals or cells, not people. What works in a mouse often does not work the same way in a person. Nobody can patent this, so nobody would ever earn back the cost of a study in people. That is usually why there is none. The record on this one is set out below.
- Living longer1 animal or lab study
31 of the 36 indexed goals have no study of any kind behind Ursolic acid
No study in people, animals or cells on this page reports a result for these. That does not prove Ursolic acid does nothing for them. It does mean anything you have heard about Ursolic acid and one of these did not come from a study cited here.
Show full evidence
What is Ursolic acid?
Ursolic acid did not change lifespan at the dose tested in mice, in the same test where acarbose made male mice live 16 to 17 percent longer. The whole human record is one eight-week study in 16 men. Body fat percentage went down. Lean tissue, like muscle, did not change.
Ursolic acid is a plant compound found in apple peel, rosemary and holy basil. It is sold almost entirely because of one line of mouse studies from a single lab. Those studies said it made muscles grow and slowed muscle wasting.
The Interventions Testing Program tested it in a run built around acarbose at three doses. Acarbose made male mice live 16 or 17 percent longer at the two higher doses, and female mice 4 to 5 percent longer. It also raised the age the longest-lived males reached, at every dose. Three other treatments ran alongside: ursolic acid, a compound called 2-(2-hydroxyphenyl) benzothiazole, and INT-767. None of them changed lifespan at the doses tested.
The human record is one small study. Sixteen healthy men, average age 29, did eight weeks of weight training. Some also took ursolic acid, one capsule three times a day. Body fat percentage fell clearly in the group taking it. Body weight, BMI, lean tissue, blood sugar and insulin did not change. Two hormones, IGF-1 and irisin, rose from where that group started, and so did several strength measures. But with seven and nine men per group, the study cannot carry much weight.
That is all the human research on a compound sold widely to build muscle.
How does Ursolic acid work?
It is a plant compound from a family called triterpenoids. The muscle idea comes from lab work suggesting it boosts insulin and IGF-1 signals in muscle. It is also said to lower two proteins, atrogin-1 and MuRF1, that break muscle down. That would tip the balance toward building. In mice, it has also been reported to turn white fat into a type that burns more calories. In a dish, it acts on a huge number of targets. That is common for compounds like this, and it is a reason to doubt any single explanation. Very little of it is absorbed when you swallow it. That makes it hard to connect any of this to a pill.
What have studies in people found about Ursolic acid?
One study in 16 men over eight weeks. That is all the published human evidence for a compound sold to build muscle.
- 16 people in total, 9 taking the supplement and 7 not. All were healthy men, average age 29, average BMI 27.
- Body fat percentage fell clearly in the supplement group over eight weeks of weight training.
- Lean tissue, the thing it is actually sold for, did not change.
- IGF-1 and irisin rose in the supplement group compared with where that same group started. That is a weaker comparison than checking one group against the other.
- No study has looked at lifespan, healthy ageing, muscle loss in older adults, or any health result.
What this does not tell you: Nine people taking something cannot prove much. The strength and hormone results compare the supplement group only with its own starting point, not with the other group. That is the weaker comparison, and the one most likely to be fooled by the training both groups did. The only result reported as a clear difference between groups is body fat percentage. Lean tissue, the reason most people buy it, did not move.
What do people who took Ursolic acid report?
This is what real people say happened to them, good and bad. Nobody measured it. A report cannot tell a real effect from the lift people get just from expecting it to work, from a diet or training change made at the same time, or from what was really in the vial. We still put it near the top. It is the next best thing to a study in people: what happens when real people use it, including what goes wrong.
- The effects described are modest measured against the claims made for it. Accounts mention looking fuller while staying lean and some reduction in abdominal fat over around six weeks, with the same posters calling the magnitude small at best.
- The effect several people single out is less swelling and soreness rather than muscle building, described as general aches easing rather than as anything to do with training.
- Amounts described are a few hundred milligrams daily, assembled from small capsules, and the number of capsules that requires is itself one of the complaints.
- Reports of little or nothing happening are common and are closer to the baseline expectation in these threads than to a surprise. Side effect discussion is essentially absent, which given how few people appear to have run it for long is an absence of reports rather than a safety record.
Sources: Nutrition and Supplements threads on T-Nation and LongeCity, found by site-restricted search, September 2026. This entry rests on a thinner base than the others in this file. Nothing above is attributed to any specific post and no post is reproduced.
The state of the research
When this program finds no lifespan effect, that is a real, costly, careful result. It is also narrower than it sounds. It tested one amount in the food, started at one age, in one kind of mouse, and it counted deaths. A no-effect result tells you that this dose, in these mice, did not change how long they lived. It does not tell you the compound does nothing. It does not tell you a different dose would fail, that the idea behind it is wrong, or that the reason people actually take it has been disproved. Those are separate questions, and most were never asked. This site tries to avoid mistakes in both directions. A mouse lifespan win is not proof a supplement works. A mouse lifespan miss is not proof it does nothing.
Ursolic acid is the page where the honest answer is that very little is known. Both the excited and the dismissive readings go too far.
The mouse lifespan result is real. At the dose the program chose, ursolic acid did not change survival. In the same run, acarbose in the next cage gave one of the program's biggest effects in males. That rules out one claim.
It does not touch the claim the product is actually sold on, which is muscle. The muscle work in animals comes mostly from one lab. The human work is 16 people. And so little is absorbed that nobody knows how a capsule relates to what reaches muscle. The fair description is this. A widely sold muscle supplement has been tested in fewer people than would fill a small classroom. Separately, it did not make mice live longer.
The Interventions Testing Program is paid for by the US National Institute on Aging. It runs each test at three separate labs at the same time, in Bar Harbor, Ann Arbor and San Antonio. It uses a mixed breed of mice, a cross of four strains, so no result can come from one odd strain. It tests males and females. Each group is big enough to spot about a 10 percent change in lifespan. Each compound is mixed into the food from a set age. And the program promises in advance to publish results that show nothing, alongside the ones that work. That promise is why this page can exist. Almost nothing else in ageing research reliably tells you what did not work.
The evidence, in charts
Fig. 1a · how many people
16people, across 1 study in people cited here
| Study | People | Share |
|---|---|---|
| Korean Journal of Physiology and Pharmacology 2014 | 16 | 100% |
The whole total is one study of 16. Counts are the number of people each study on this page says it signed up. That includes studies that only watched people and gave nobody the compound. Studies still signing people up are left out, and only studies cited on this page are counted.
Fig. 1b · evidence mix
1 of 2 sources here is a study in people. The rest is not.
- Study in people · done in people150%
- Animal study · done in animals150%
Counted from the list of sources on this page. It counts only what we cite, so there may be more studies out there. A review counts once, however many studies it sums up.
Fig. 2 · evidence over time
Sources here come from just two years, 2014 and 2019.
Too few different years on this page to draw a timeline. The newest source on file is from 2019, more than five years ago. Research on it may have gone quiet.
Fig. 3 · legal status at a glance
US
Not approved
UK
Not approved
AU
Not approved
CA
Not approved
Not approved in any of the four countries shown. This is what the law says, not a verdict on the science. See Legal status below for the full text and any notes.
Fig. 4 · how much does what
Nobody has tested different amounts in people
This chart would show how the effect changes as the amount goes up. For this compound, nobody has measured that in people. So we leave it empty. We will not borrow an animal chart and pretend it works the same in people.
Fig. 5 · what the molecule is
- Kind of compound
- Supplement
- Molecule weight
- 456.7 Da. A pentacyclic triterpenoid, not a peptide.
- Half-life
- Stated in words, not a numbersee the exact wording below
- Chain length
- None on file
Half-life as stated on file: Not reliably established in humans. Oral bioavailability is low and no human pharmacokinetic study adequate to define a half-life was located.
No amino acid sequence is on file for Ursolic acid, which is expected: a supplement is not built from amino acids.
The studies we cite
- Study in people2014Ursolic Acid-induced elevation of serum irisin augments muscle strength during resistance training in men
The entire human record for ursolic acid is sixteen men. 16 healthy men averaging 29 did eight weeks of weight training, seven on training alone and nine also taking ursolic acid capsules three times a day. Body fat percentage fell in the supplemented group. Body weight, body mass index, muscle mass, blood sugar and insulin did not change. Two hormones rose from their own starting points, as did several leg strength measures. Nine people on a supplement cannot settle anything, and nobody has repeated it.
16 healthy men, mean age 29, randomised to eight weeks of resistance training alone (n equals 7) or with ursolic acid (n equals 9), one capsule three times daily. Body fat percentage fell significantly in the supplemented group (p less than 0.001) while body weight, body mass index, lean body mass, glucose and insulin were unchanged. IGF-1 and irisin rose from baseline in the supplemented group, as did several maximal extension and flexion measures.
- Animal study2019Acarbose improves health and lifespan in aging HET3 mice
In mice. Acarbose at three doses made both sexes live longer. The two higher doses made males live 16 to 17 percent longer, and females 4 to 5 percent longer. Three other treatments were tested in the same report: ursolic acid, 2-(2-hydroxyphenyl) benzothiazole and INT-767. None of them changed lifespan at the doses tested.
Interventions Testing Program. Acarbose at 400, 1,000 and 2,500 ppm produced significant survival changes in both sexes, with the two higher doses giving 16 to 17 percent increases in male median longevity against 4 to 5 percent in females. In the same report, three other interventions were tested, ursolic acid, 2-(2-hydroxyphenyl) benzothiazole and INT-767, and none of these affected lifespan at the doses tested.
Common questions
Has Ursolic acid been tested in people?
Yes. 16 people given it across 1 completed trial cited here, 1 of which found nothing. Ursolic acid did not change lifespan at the dose tested in mice, in the same test where acarbose made male mice live 16 to 17 percent longer. The whole human record is one eight-week study in 16 men. Body fat percentage went down. Lean tissue, like muscle, did not change.
What is the Ursolic acid dosage?
No human dose established. Amounts that were given in studies sit in Human evidence on this page. None of them is a personal dose. 1 completed trial, 16 people given it
Is Ursolic acid FDA-approved?
Sold as a dietary supplement. Not an approved drug and not approved to prevent or treat anything.
Does ursolic acid build muscle in people?
One study has asked. Sixteen men trained for eight weeks with or without it. Body fat percentage fell in the group taking it, and lean tissue did not change in either group. That is not enough to answer the question either way.
Does it extend lifespan?
No, at the dose tested. The National Institute on Aging tested it alongside acarbose and found no effect on lifespan. In the same report, acarbose made male mice live 16 to 17 percent longer, so the test could clearly spot an effect.
Why is it in so many supplements then?
Because of mouse studies reporting that it makes muscle grow and blocks the signals that waste muscle. That is a genuinely interesting finding from a small number of labs. The whole product category rests on animal muscle results. Testing in people has not followed.
Is it absorbed?
Poorly. Very little is absorbed when you swallow it, and that is the known problem. No proper human study of how the body handles it was found. So the dose on a bottle cannot be linked to how much reaches your tissues.