Have any clinical trials evaluated the individual ingredients commonly listed in Gelatide formulations (e.g., EGCG, raspberry ketones) and what were their results?
Executive summary
Clinical trials directly testing raspberry ketone in isolation are essentially absent and human data are limited to one small randomized trial that used raspberry ketone as part of a multi‑ingredient product, making attribution impossible [1] [2]. By contrast, epigallocatechin‑3‑gallate (EGCG, the main active in green tea) has been tested in randomized, double‑blind trials with largely null or modest effects on body weight in overweight or obese adults [3].
1. Raspberry ketone — animal promise, human paucity
Laboratory and animal studies show plausible mechanisms — increased adiponectin expression, enhanced norepinephrine‑induced lipolysis and altered adipogenesis — but human evidence is very thin: no well‑designed trials testing raspberry ketone alone have demonstrated weight loss in people and clinical reports emphasize that human trials are scanty and inconsistent [1] [4] [5].
2. The one human trial often cited — combination formulas, not isolation
The most commonly cited randomized human study supplemented participants with a proprietary blend that included raspberry ketone alongside caffeine, bitter orange (Citrus aurantium), ginger, garlic, capsaicin and other micronutrients during an 8‑week program, and reported favorable body composition changes — but investigators and reviewers explicitly note the multi‑ingredient nature prevents isolating any single compound’s effect [6] [2].
3. EGCG (green tea catechin) — trials show at best modest or no weight loss
Randomized, double‑blind trials of purified EGCG (for example a trial using ~300 mg/d) in overweight or obese women found non‑significant changes in body weight and adiposity and no clear benefit on insulin resistance or lipids, and systematic reviews of green tea catechins report inconsistent cardiometabolic effects overall [3].
4. Caffeine and capsaicin — the best clinical signal among common ingredients
Clinical research supports that stimulants like caffeine and certain capsaicinoids can raise energy expenditure and fat oxidation in humans (reported increases in energy expenditure up to ~13%), which is why they commonly appear in finished formulations and likely drive much of any short‑term metabolic effect observed in combination trials [6] [2].
5. The attribution problem: multi‑ingredient trials dominate the literature
A recurring limitation is that most human studies involve multi‑ingredient supplements or small trials, so meta‑analysts and clinical reviewers warn that effects cannot be disentangled by ingredient, dosages vary widely across products, and study quality often limits interpretation [1] [2].
6. Safety signals and unanswered questions
Reports caution that human safety data for isolated raspberry ketone are incomplete and that high doses used in animal studies would be impractical or potentially unsafe in people; meanwhile trials of EGCG have generally shown acceptable hepatic and metabolic lab parameters but without robust efficacy for weight loss [7] [3] [5].
7. Bottom line — what the trials actually say
Clinical trials have evaluated EGCG and stimulants like caffeine/capsaicin with modest or mechanistic positive findings for energy expenditure but inconsistent or non‑significant effects on weight in longer trials, whereas raspberry ketone lacks well‑controlled human trials as a single agent and positive claims in humans rest largely on small combination studies and animal/lab data [3] [6] [1] [5].