Green coffee bean extract

About Green coffee bean extract

An extract of unroasted coffee beans standardised to chlorogenic acids, which are largely destroyed by roasting. Most products retain some caffeine.

Green coffee extract is a cautionary tale about supplement evidence. The trial that launched it was retracted, its sponsor was fined by the US Federal Trade Commission for deceptive claims, and the researchers named on it later disavowed the data. What remains is a set of small, mostly industry-funded trials reporting modest weight differences that reviewers describe as low quality and probably overstated.

Sold as

Standardised extract capsule, Tablet, Weight-loss blends, Instant beverage

Standardised to

Commonly 45–50% chlorogenic acids — a product without this marker may not resemble what was studied.

Also known as

Chlorogenic acid extract, Unroasted coffee extract, Svetol

Regulation: The US Federal Trade Commission took enforcement action over green coffee weight-loss marketing, and the trial underpinning the original claims was retracted by its publisher.

What the research used

The amounts, forms and durations published trials of Green coffee bean extract actually administered.

When it was taken

Each window says whether a trial compared it against an alternative, or whether it is convention and pharmacology. Most timing advice is the second kind.

In the food catalogue

The whole-food form, where one exists. The evidence for a concentrated extract rarely transfers to the food, or the other way round — these are cross-links, not equivalents.