| Names | |
|---|---|
| Systematic IUPAC name Propane-1,2,3-triyl tributanoate | |
| Other names Tributyrin; Glyceryl tributyrate; Glycerol tributyrate; Glycerin tributyrate; NSC-661583; CoreBiome; ButyraGen | |
| Identifiers | |
3D model (JSmol) | |
| ChEBI | |
| ChemSpider | |
| DrugBank | |
| ECHA InfoCard | 100.000.410 |
| KEGG | |
PubChem CID | |
| UNII | |
CompTox Dashboard (EPA) | |
| |
| |
| Properties | |
| C15H26O6 | |
| Molar mass | 302.367 g·mol−1 |
| Appearance | Oily liquid with bitter taste [1] |
| Density | 1.032 g/cm3 [1] |
| Melting point | −75 °C (−103 °F; 198 K) [1] |
| Boiling point | 305 to 310 °C (581 to 590 °F; 578 to 583 K) [1] |
| Insoluble [1] | |
| Hazards | |
| Safety data sheet (SDS) | Tributyrin MSDS, Fischer Scientific |
Except where otherwise noted, data are given for materials in their standard state (at 25 °C [77 °F], 100 kPa). | |
Tributyrin, also known as glyceryl tributyrate, is a triglyceride (fat) naturally present in butter. [2] [3] [4] It is an ester composed of three butyric acid (butyrate) moieties and glycerol. [1] It can be described as a liquid fat with an acrid taste. About 3 to 4% of butter is tributyrin, with butter being the richest known food source of tributyrin. [3] [5] The compound is also used as a dietary supplement [6] [7] and is being studied for various potential medical uses [2] [8] [9] due to it being a slowly converted precursor or prodrug of the short-chain fatty acid and "postbiotic" butyric acid, which is a major product of beneficial gut bacteria. [10]
Tributyrin is a precursor or prodrug of the endogenous short-chain fatty acid (SCFA) butyric acid (butyrate). [4] [2] [5] It is stable and is rapidly absorbed and gradually converted into butyric acid. [2] [5] [11] Tributyrin is not broken down by gastric juice and is slowly converted into butyric acid and glycerol by pancreatic lipases in the gut. [12] In addition, tributyrin is more lipophilic than butyric acid and is taken up into cells much more readily in comparison. [4] Butyric acid itself has an extremely short elimination half-life of seconds to minutes among other limitations, which makes its own use impractical. [2] [3] [13] [14] For comparison, tributyrin has considerably longer half-life of 40 minutes with oral administration in rodents. [2] [5]
Butyric acid, the active form of tributyrin, has a large variety of biological effects. [10] It is an agonist of the FFAR2 (GPR43), FFAR3 (GPR41), and GPR109A and a histone deacetylase (HDAC) inhibitor of HDAC classes I and II. [10] In addition, butyric acid is the preferred energy source for colonocytes, and has been found to provide approximately 70% of total energy needs for colonocytes in mice. [10] Butyrate plays a key role in gut homeostasis and has anti-inflammatory effects among others. [10] Tributyrin is described as an HDAC inhibitor similarly to butyric acid. [15] [16]
Tributyrin has been found to reverse gut microbiota dysbiosis and intestinal injury and inflammation induced by antibiotics in rodents. [4] [12] [17] This included increasing potentially beneficial SCFA-producing bacteria such as Muribaculaceae and Bifidobacterium and decreasing potentially pathogenic bacteria such as Bacteroidetes and Enterococcus . [12] One means by which SCFAs like butyrate may mediate such effects is by decreasing intestinal pH. [18] In accordance with the observed intestinal bacterial changes, tributyrin increased levels of the SFCAs butyric acid, acetic acid (acetate), and propionic acid (propionate). [12] The effects of tributyrin and butyrate appear to be dose-dependent, with low concentrations promoting the intestinal barrier and inhibiting inflammation while high concentrations can do the opposite via induction of apoptosis. [4] [12] In addition to reversing antibiotic-induced dysbiosis, tributyrin has been found to strongly reduce Clostridium difficile infection in rodents. [4] [19] Coadministration of tributyrin with the probiotics Limosilactobacillus reuteri and Lacticaseibacillus rhamnosus has been found to synergistically increase butyrate levels in humans ex vivo as well. [20] [21]
Butyric acid is known to activate the brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) and tropomyosin receptor kinase B (TrkB) signaling pathway via its HDAC inhibition. [22] [23] Tributyrin has been found to modulate hippocampal synaptic plasticity and improve memory in rodents. [24] [25] It has also been found to enhance sleep and increase slow wave sleep (SWS) in rodents. [26] [27] [28] [29] [30] Beneficial effects of butyric acid on sleep in rodents have been found to be mediated by activation of the BDNF–TrkB pathway. [31]
The pharmacokinetics of tributyrin in rodents have been studied. [2] [5] [32] [33] [34] [35] In addition, tributyrin has been clinically studied in people with solid tumors. [13] [14] Oral administration of high doses of tributyrin (50–400 mg/kg) has been found to maintain elevated circulating butyrate levels for up to 4 hours. [2] [3] [13] [14] This was insufficient for once-daily administration, so thrice daily administration was subsequently pursued instead, though butyrate levels during therapy remained erratic. [2] [3] [13] [14] The elimination half-life of tributyrin in humans could not be determined due to levels being too erratic. [14] [13] On the other hand, its time to peak levels was median 2.75 hours and range 2.0 to 3.5 hours. [14] The time to peak levels for butyrate specifically (with tributyrin) is median 0.5 to 1.5 hours and range 0.5 to 4.0 hours. [14] [13]
Tributyrin is sold as an over-the-counter supplement under names like CoreBiome, ButyraGen and TauBiotic among others and has been referred to as a "postbiotic"—that is, a microorganism metabolite that has biological effects and potentially therapeutic benefits. [6] [7] [36] [37] [9] [8] The compound has a mild, lingering odor and bitter taste, but this is overcome with supplements via formulation in soft gelatin capsules. [5] Tributyrin has greater encapsulation efficacy than sodium butyrate. [8] As a result, high doses of tributyrin can be contained in capsules than sodium butyrate—500 mg per capsule and 150 mg sodium butyrate per capsule. [8] The reduced number of capsules needed may make tributyrin more acceptable in comparison to sodium butyrate, in addition to its more favorable pharmacokinetic properties. [8]
Tributyrin is used in microbiological laboratories to identify the bacterium Moraxella catarrhalis . [38]
Tributyrin was under formal clinical development for the treatment of solid tumors in the late 1990s, but no further development was subsequently reported. [39] It is also being clinically studied in the treatment of depression (4 g/day) [8] and Parkinson's disease (1.5 g/day). [9] [40] [41] [42] In a preliminary phase 1b clinical trial for Parkinson's disease, tributyrin demonstrated target engagement (increased butyric acid levels in the brain and other organs), produced systemic anti-inflammatory effects, showed improvements in cognitive and motor symptoms, and increased deep sleep by about 22% or approximately 15 minutes per night. [43] [9] [40] [42] A larger phase 2 trial of tributyrin for Parkinson's disease, known as BUTTER2, is now underway. [9] [40] [42] [41] The proper dosage of tributyrin and butyrate for therapeutic use, based on extrapolation from endogenous intestinal butyrate production (~1–10 g/day), has been studied and reviewed. [8] [44]
Tributyrin (TB), a BA prodrug present in milk fat and honey, has more favorable pharmacokinetic properties than BA, and its oral administration is also better tolerated. [...] The butyrate half-life may be considerably increased when it is administered as its natural prodrug, namely tributyrin (TB) [37-39]. TB, which is found in a variety of foodstuffs such as milk fat and honey [40, 41], is a triacylglycerol composed of three BA molecules esterified with glycerol. Therefore, the full hydrolysis of 1 mole of TB may generate 3 moles of BA. After oral administration to rodents, the TB half-life was approximately 40 minutes [42]. In addition, the oral administration of TB to rodents produced detectable serum butyrate levels five minutes later, and the levels reached their peak 15 to 60 minutes after administration [39] and could be maintained above 0.1 mM for up to 120 minutes [39, 41]. [...] TB, the natural BA prodrug, is quickly absorbed into the serum and is chemically stable. The hydrolysis of TB gives rise to butyrate molecules that exert inhibitory effects on several types of cancer. [...]
A direct source of butyrate is the diet, where it is present at low levels in many fruits and vegetables, but its richest source is from milk fat (butter) which contains 3–4 % butyrate as glycerol esters, termed tributyrin [18]. [...]
In spite of its early promise, butyrate is not among the drugs used for cancer treatment. The major problem has been to achieve and maintain its millimolar concentrations in blood. Butyrate is metabolized rapidly as soon as it enters the colonocyte via its active transport system (11–13), and its plasma concentrations are far below those required to exert its antiproliferative/differentiating actions. A prodrug of natural butyrate, tributyrin, is a neutral short-chain fatty acid triglyceride that is likely to overcome the pharmacokinetic drawbacks of natural butyrate as a drug (14). Because it is rapidly absorbed and chemically stable in plasma, tributyrin diffuses through biological membranes and is metabolized by intracellular lipases, releasing therapeutically effective butyrate over time directly into the cell. Compared with butyrate, tributyrin has more favorable pharmacokinetics (14–16) and is well tolerated (17). Liquid tributyrin filled into gelatin capsules and administered orally resulted in millimolar concentrations of butyrate both in plasma and inside the cell (17).
{{cite journal}}: CS1 maint: article number as page number (link)Providing butyrate can be challenging for several reasons, including short metabolic half-life, toxicity, and patient intolerance. Butyrate has been provided via several routes: intravenously, rectally as enemas, and orally. There are limitations to providing butyrate intravenously (500 mg/kg body weight) in that large volumes are required, and the metabolic half-life is very short, with blood levels peaking about 6 minutes after delivery.10 Providing higher rates of intravenous (IV) butyrate infusion is undesirable due to risk of toxicity from sodium overload. Rectal enemas (100 mmol/L) have been successful in reversing negative gastrointestinal (GI) effects in patients with inflammatory bowel disease; however, this mode of delivery lends to very poor patient compliance.10 Tributyrin overcomes many of the problems of the parent compound. Tributyrin delivered orally in animals has a plasma half-life of 40 minutes.16 In humans, oral delivery provided once daily for 3 weeks was without severe toxicity, and peak plasma butyrate concentrations occurred between 0.25 and 3 hours after dose and ranged from 0–0.45 mM, which is near those found to be effective in vitro (0.5–1 mM).22 [...] The fact that tributyrin alone was able to exhibit these beneficial effects is intriguing as many factors can impair efficacy of probiotic provision (eg, viability, dosing, timing, colonization, storage temperature). [...] If tributyrin supplementation alone achieves the desired outcomes of improved gut integrity and preservation of genes and proteins involved with water and electrolyte homeo-stasis, then this therapy may prove more attractive to clinicians and patients.
Another class of bioactive molecules found in postbiotics is the SCFAs, which include acetic acid, propionic acid, isobutyric acid, butyric acid, isovaleric acid, and valeric acid.120 These SCFAs are predominantly absorbed in the large intestine of monogastric animals and the rumen of ruminants, providing a valuable energy source for the host. Organic acids and SCFAs within postbiotics contribute to a decrease in pH that leads to a shift in the GI tract, creating an environment conducive for the growth of beneficial bacteria, such as LAB and Bifidobacteria, while concurrently reducing the population of pathogens, including Enterobacteria and E. coli. 115 These findings have been consistently reported in numerous studies involving pigs and chickens. [...] Such findings consistently support the positive impacts of postbiotics on gut microbiota composition, favoring beneficial bacteria while suppressing pathogenic species.
Dietary interventions, supplementation with butyrate-producing bacteria, and tributyrin treatment increase butyrate production and improve CDI [18,29,41].
Supplementation with tributyrin (TB) significantly raises butyrate levels, and L. rhamnosus ATCC 53103 (LGG) may enhance butyrate production by modulating the gut microbiota [117].
Tributyrin, as a butyrate pro-drug, improved NREM sleep in rats, an effect mediated through the vagus in the hepatoportal region [110]. A recent study in young subjects showed that sleep quality was positively associated with higher relative abundance of butyrate-producing genera [111].
Oral gavage administration of tributyrin, a butyrate pro-drug, elicited an almost 50% increase in non-rapid-eye movement sleep (NREMS) in mice for 4 hours after the treatment. Similarly, intraportal injection of butyrate led to prompt and robust increases in NREMS in rats. In the first 6 hours after the butyrate injection, NREMS increased by 70%.
Importantly, intervention with tributyrin (a butyrate prodrug) suppressed orexin neuron activation and ameliorated sleep disturbances, suggesting that gut microbiota may contribute to sleep disorders through disrupted butyrate metabolism and impaired hypothalamic neuronal homeostasis (Wang et al. 2024). Furthermore, Szentirmai et al. reported that butyrate promotes NREM sleep in mice, potentially through sensory mechanisms located in the liver and/or portal vein system (2019). In a Parkinson's disease mouse model, butyrate supplementation was shown to restore normal sleep architecture, possibly via the BDNF‐TrkB signaling pathway (Duan et al. 2025).
Prior research suggested that tributyrin, a precursor to butyrate, could enhance NREM sleep. Replicating this experiment, we confirmed the effect (Supplementary Fig. 3A). We observed that tributyrin significantly increased the duration of NREM sleep and decreased time spent in wakefulness during the initial six hours of the dark phase, followed by a decrease in NREM sleep during the subsequent six hours (Supplementary Fig. 3B, C). It may be a self-compensatory sleep mechanism.
Bohnen JLB et al. [207] assessed the safety and potential biomechanistic effects of tributyrin (a prodrug of butyrate) in an open-label clinical trial. Fourteen PD patients and three control subjects completed a 30-day (±7 days) intervention consisting of dietary supplementation with tributyrin (500 mg taken orally three times daily), demonstrating a satisfactory safety profile and high compliance. Nine patients completed a PET scan with [11C] butyrate before and after the intervention, which allowed for the assessment of treatment-related changes in butyrate uptake by the brain, liver, heart, and gastrointestinal tract, confirming involvement in the target process, i.e., changes in butyrate availability in individual organs and systemic anti-inflammatory effects, as well as improved cognitive and motor functions.