Butyrate Tri-Pro

What Is Tributyrin?

Butyrate is a short-chain fatty acid, four carbons long, and the main fuel of the cells that line the colon. Gut bacteria make it by fermenting fiber. Tributyrin is butyrate in a packaged form: three butyrate units esterified to a glycerol backbone, 300 mg per serving.

How It Works in the Body

Free butyrate is pungent and is taken up high in the digestive tract, well before the colon. Tied to glycerol it behaves like a fat instead. It passes the stomach intact, and lipases release the three butyrate units further along.

Colonocytes, the cells lining the colon, then burn butyrate directly. They draw most of their energy from it rather than from the bloodstream, which is unusual among human cells. That local fuel supply is also what keeps the junctions between those cells tight.

What It Supports

• Colon cell fuel: Butyrate is the fuel the cells lining the colon prefer, so it supports the everyday work of the gut lining.
• The gut barrier: That same fuel supply helps maintain the tight junctions holding the intestinal lining together.
• Fiber chemistry, from the other direction: Butyrate is what gut bacteria make from fiber, so this covers the same molecule directly.
• Delivery further down: Tied to glycerol, butyrate travels past the stomach, where the free acid would be taken up early.

Who It May Suit

People whose eating has been light on fiber for a stretch, and anyone building a gut routine around a probiotic who wants the bacterial end product as well. The shell is bovine gelatin, so this one does not suit vegetarian or vegan eating.

Good To Know

Butyrate has a strong smell, which is the compound itself rather than a fault. The softgel fill also carries black cumin seed oil and medium-chain triglycerides. Talk with your provider before use if you are pregnant or nursing, or if you take medication for blood pressure or blood sugar, since black cumin seed oil can act on both.