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Butylphthalide
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Ingredients/Compound/Butylphthalide

Butylphthalide.

Strength pending.The research strength is not set yet.

A celery seed compound that relaxes blood vessel walls in laboratory preparations. In several countries it is a prescription medicine rather than a supplement ingredient.

Compound
ButylphthalideIngredientMD
Category
Compound

What Butylphthalide is, and what it does.

Does it work
This one belongs with clinicians and the people they look after. If the celery angle interests you, celery seed oil is the food-form relative you'll find on a shelf.
How much to take
No dose figure is on record. Where it is a prescription medicine, the amount is set by a prescriber rather than by a label.
Time to feel it
Nobody has measured a time to effect for it outside supervised clinical use.
The first dose
Day one has nothing you'd sense. The capsule is oil filled, so it's absorbed along with the fat in a meal.
With regular use
Use over weeks outside a prescribing setting has not been characterised, so there is no honest week-by-week picture to give.
How well tolerated
It is handled by liver CYP enzymes, so other medicines can shift exposure either way. Because it is prescription-only in some countries, speak to a doctor or pharmacist first.
How it feels
No subjective reports have been published from supplement-style use. Celery-derived oils taste and smell strongly of celery.
The overlooked benefit
The same phthalide family gives celery its smell, and celery seed oil on a supplement shelf is the food-form cousin of the laboratory-made version.

The proof, claim by claim.

What these words mean

These words describe the research, not the molecule's worth. Research strength is how much work stands behind one claim, and it is never a product score.

  • relaxation of vascular smooth muscleIn vitro study
  • microcirculatory blood flowAnimal study
2 more claims
  • mitochondrial function in nerve tissueAnimal study
  • hepatic CYP-mediated metabolism and exposureNarrative review
Pairs well with6 on file
Butylphthalide + ProbioticsGut microbiota composition alters butylphthalide pharmacokinetics.
Butylphthalide + MCT oilButylphthalide is a lipophilic oil soluble phthalide with poor water solubility.
Butylphthalide + Fish oilOverlapping influence on platelet behaviour that is a caution rather than a benefit.
Butylphthalide + Ginkgo bilobaBoth are promoted for cerebral blood flow and both touch platelet function.
Butylphthalide + Coenzyme Q10Butylphthalide has been described as acting on mitochondrial function in ischaemia models.
Butylphthalide + Dang guiAngelica species contain related phthalides such as ligustilide.
Why these belong in the same formula, 6 pairings

Why these belong in the same formula. Each row says what the basis is, from settled biochemistry through to a trial that measured the pair.

Butylphthalide + ProbioticsGut microbiota composition alters butylphthalide pharmacokinetics.

Li and colleagues found that disrupting the intestinal microbiota with antibiotics changed measured butylphthalide exposure in vivo. That implicates microbial metabolism or microbially influenced absorption in how much of a dose is available. Anything that reshapes the gut community, including antibiotics and probiotic use, is therefore a plausible source of variability.

Butylphthalide + MCT oilButylphthalide is a lipophilic oil soluble phthalide with poor water solubility.

The compound is formulated in soft capsules dissolved in vegetable oil because it will not dissolve in water. A defined medium chain triglyceride vehicle gives more consistent dispersion than relying on stomach contents. This affects exposure, not intrinsic activity.

Butylphthalide + Fish oilOverlapping influence on platelet behaviour that is a caution rather than a benefit.

Butylphthalide has been described as reducing platelet aggregation in laboratory work, and high dose EPA and DHA do the same through eicosanoid substrate competition. Stacking them adds bleeding risk, particularly alongside prescribed antiplatelet medicines. This pairing belongs on a caution list.

Butylphthalide + Ginkgo bilobaBoth are promoted for cerebral blood flow and both touch platelet function.

Ginkgo terpene lactones antagonise platelet activating factor and butylphthalide has its own reported antiplatelet activity. The combination is popular in the same product category, which is exactly why the overlap deserves flagging. There is no controlled human work on the pair.

Butylphthalide + Coenzyme Q10Butylphthalide has been described as acting on mitochondrial function in ischaemia models.

The metabolic work by Lu and colleagues points toward mitochondrial and energy metabolism effects in a rodent model. Coenzyme Q10 sits directly in the electron transport chain. The overlap is mechanistic and animal derived, so read it as a hypothesis rather than as a clinical pairing.

Butylphthalide + Dang guiAngelica species contain related phthalides such as ligustilide.

Ligustilide and butylphthalide belong to the same phthalide family and share structural features. Traditional Angelica preparations therefore supply chemically related molecules from a different plant source. Structural relatedness is not the same as equivalent activity, and the two should not be dose compared.

Who should be cautious

Nothing specific on file for Butylphthalide. Match the label to the daily amount above, and tell your doctor what you take.

Not medical advice. Show the label to your pharmacist.

What Butylphthalide actually does.

Established

This compound was first found in celery seed oil, but the version used as a medicine is a lab made synthetic form.

3 more mechanisms
Established

It barely dissolves in water, which is why it comes in oil filled soft capsules instead of a dry powder.

Established

In some countries this is a prescription medicine, not a regular supplement ingredient, so it sits outside normal self directed use.

Strong

Your liver breaks this down using enzymes that many other drugs also use, so taking it alongside strong inhibitors or inducers of those enzymes can change how much of it stays in your system.

More than one route, 5 steps on record

Where Butylphthalide comes from.

This compound was first found in celery seed oil, but the version used in studies is made in a lab. It does not dissolve in water, so it comes in oil filled capsules. In several countries it is a prescription drug, not something to pick up off a supplement shelf.

What this route gives you

The same molecule is reached more than one way. Which route a given product used is a manufacturing choice, and the finished compound is the same either way.

5 steps on record
Starts as
Celery seed oil or petrochemical precursors

The natural L isomer occurs in Apium graveolens seed oil, while commercial material is built synthetically from phthalide precursors

Converted by
Alkylation of phthalide

A butyl group is introduced at the 3 position to give racemic 3 n butylphthalide

Purified by
Distillation and chromatography

The oily product is purified and residual solvents removed to pharmaceutical specification

Standardised to
Assay and enantiomer ratio

Lots are specified for purity and, where relevant, for the DL ratio

Ends up as
Oil filled soft capsule or lipid emulsion

Dissolved in vegetable oil and encapsulated, or emulsified for infusion

Getting Butylphthalide from food.

The whole-food sources on file. A supplement closes the gap, it does not replace dinner.

Celery seedCelery stalksCelery seed oil

A gram-for-gram figure (how much of each you would eat to match a dose) will appear here once it is sourced and reviewed. This page will not print a number it cannot cite.

The forms it comes in.

Racemic butylphthalide softgelSynthetic racemic mixture dissolved in vegetable oil inside a soft capsuleFits The pharmaceutical form used in clinical studiesTrade-off A prescription medicine in the countries where it is registered, not a self directed supplement
4 more forms
L isomerThe single enantiomer that occurs naturally in celery seed oilFits Research comparisons of enantiomer specific activityTrade-off Limited availability and most clinical data used the racemic form instead
Apium graveolens seed oilVolatile oil containing butylphthalide, sedanolide and related phthalides at low percentageFits Botanical products where the whole phthalide profile is wantedTrade-off Butylphthalide content is low and variable, so it cannot be dose matched to the isolated compound
Butylphthalide cyclodextrin complexThe lipophilic molecule enclosed in a cyclodextrin cavity to improve aqueous dispersionFits Formulation research aimed at non oil dosage formsTrade-off Adds substantial excipient mass per milligram of activeActive and formulation aid
Butylphthalide injectable emulsionOil in water emulsion for parenteral deliveryFits Hospital administration where oral dosing is not possibleTrade-off Clinical setting only and entirely outside supplement use
What the strongest studies found

The essence, in one line each.

  1. The authors report region specific metabolic changes with DL 3 n butylphthalide in their spatial metabolomics analysis of a cerebral ischemia reperfusion model.Animal study. Lu et al., 2025 (Neurotherapeutics). PMID 39880748 β†—
1 more finding
  1. The authors report that antibiotic disruption of the intestinal microbiota altered the pharmacokinetic profile of n butylphthalide in vivo.Animal study. Li et al., 2024 (PLoS One). PMID 38917098 β†—

Chosen from the 3 we read for Butylphthalide.

Primary evidence

The studies, linked.

12 sources behind our Butylphthalide verdict, every one linked to PubMed, the journal or ClinicalTrials.gov.

  1. ClinicalTrials.gov β†—
11 more linked trials
  1. ClinicalTrials.gov β†—
  2. ClinicalTrials.gov β†—
  3. ClinicalTrials.gov β†—
  4. ClinicalTrials.gov β†—
  5. ClinicalTrials.gov β†—
  6. ClinicalTrials.gov β†—
  7. ClinicalTrials.gov β†—
  8. ClinicalTrials.gov β†—
  9. ClinicalTrials.gov β†—
  10. ClinicalTrials.gov β†—
  11. ClinicalTrials.gov β†—

From clinical trials and PubMed, ranked by study type and citation weight, not cherry-picked.

Side effects reported to the FDA

Problems people have reported.

Read this carefully. These are 266 voluntary, unverified reactions reported to the FDA (openFDA). The number mostly reflects how popular Butylphthalide is, not how risky it is. A report is not proof Butylphthalide caused anything. It is a signal of what to watch for, nothing more.

Hepatic Function Abnormal
20
Cerebral Infarction
18
Cerebral Haemorrhage
9
3 more reported effects
Drug Ineffective
9
Liver Injury
8
Condition Aggravated
7

Source: openFDA adverse-event reports. Voluntary reporting, not an incidence rate.

FDA Disclaimer: These statements have not been evaluated by the Food and Drug Administration. This information is for educational purposes only and is not intended to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any disease. Consult your healthcare provider before starting any supplement regimen.