Citrus Bergamot Supplements: 19 of 47 Labels Skip the Key Number

Search for a citrus bergamot supplement and every bottle leads with a milligram figure: 500 mg, 1,000 mg, 1,400 mg, 2,000 mg. That number feels like the strength. On most of these labels it is the weight of the extract, and on some it is the weight of fresh fruit the extract is said to equal. Neither tells you how much of the part that was studied, the polyphenols, is in a serving.

So we counted. On 12 October 2026 we pulled every on-market bergamot label in the NIH Office of Dietary Supplements’ Dietary Supplement Label Database (DSLD) and read the ingredient panel of each one.

What we counted

The database search returned 105 labels containing the word bergamot. We set aside 17 that are not citrus bergamot supplements: 4 essential oils sold by the drop, 6 made from bergamot mint (a different plant, Mentha citrata), 4 Earl Grey teas, 2 flower-essence sprays and 1 label with no bergamot ingredient on its panel. Of the remaining 88, 41 are combination formulas that add berberine, plant sterols, vitamins or other actives. That left 47 labels where bergamot is the only active ingredient.

These are labels, not distinct products: some brands have more than one label version on file. Within those 47, here is what the panels state.

What the label states	Labels	Share
A polyphenol or flavonoid percentage or milligram amount	28	60%
No polyphenol or flavonoid content at all	19	40%
of which: liquid drops	11 of 11	100%
of which: gummies	2 of 2	100%
of which: capsules or tablets	6 of 34	18%

The format you buy almost decides the answer. Every capsule or tablet label that names a standardization gives you something to compare. Not one of the 11 liquid labels does, and neither gummy does.

Where it is stated, the spread is five-fold

For the 28 labels that state it, we multiplied the extract amount per serving by the percentage printed on the panel, or used the milligram figure where the label gives one. The result is the declared polyphenol or flavonoid content per serving.

Declared per serving	What the label says
125 mg	500 mg extract, standardized to 25% flavonoids
150 mg	500 mg extract at 30% polyphenolic flavones, or 375 mg at 40% flavonoids
190 mg	500 mg extract at 38% polyphenols
200 mg	500 mg extract at 40%
380 mg	1,000 mg (two capsules) at 38%
500 mg	1,000 mg at 50%
611 mg	1,300 mg (two tablets) at 47% total polyphenols

The lowest is 125 mg and the highest is 611 mg, with a median of 235 mg. Labels do not use the same word for what they measure: some say polyphenols, some flavonoids, some flavanones or flavones. Those are not identical measurements, so treat the spread as a guide to how different labels are, not as a precise ranking.

The milligram on the front can mean fresh fruit

Three labels in the set show how far the front number can drift from the extract inside.

• A capsule sold as Citrus Bergamot Extract 2000 mg lists 2,000 mg per capsule and describes it as “equivalent from 100 mg of 20:1 extract.” The capsule holds 100 mg of extract.
• An Extra Strength Citrus Bergamot 500 mg describes “A 35:1 extract equivalent to 17,500 mg of fresh citrus bergamot fruit” and states no polyphenol percentage. The same brand’s 25:1 Extract 500 mg states “a minimum of 40% Polyphenolic Flavones,” which works out to 200 mg. The product called extra strength is the one you cannot measure.
• A Citrus Bergamot Complex 1,000 mg is 500 mg of bergamot powder, 300 mg of a 25:1 extract and 200 mg of a citrus bioflavonoid complex, with no polyphenol figure for the bergamot.

An extract ratio such as 20:1 or 35:1 says how much fruit went in per unit of extract. It does not say what came out. We covered why a ratio is not a strength in detail on our page about mullein drops and what 10:1 means; the same reading applies here.

BPF and the Calabrian trials

Most of the human research on bergamot comes from a group at University Magna Graecia in Catanzaro, in Calabria, and uses an extract called bergamot polyphenolic fraction, or BPF. Nine of our 47 labels name BPF or a polyphenolic fraction, and they declare 38% to 47% polyphenols.

What the trials we checked actually gave:

Trial	People	Daily dose	Length	What the abstract reports
Gliozzi 2013	77 adults with high LDL and triglycerides	1,000 mg BPF (one arm with rosuvastatin)	30 days	BPF alone reduced total and LDL cholesterol versus control
Bruno 2017	15 people taking antipsychotics	1,000 mg BPF	30 days	Body weight fell; other metabolic measures did not differ
Bruno 2017	28 people taking antipsychotics	500 mg BPF	60 days	”Did not change clinical and metabolic parameters”
Yu 2026	108 East Asian adults	375 mg extract, 150 mg flavonoids	4 months	Total cholesterol −7.3%, LDL −7.0%

Two things limit how far these carry to a bottle. First, the BPF abstracts do not state the polyphenol percentage of the fraction used, so a 1,000 mg BPF dose cannot be converted into a polyphenol figure and matched to a label. Second, the 2026 trial’s extract supplier employed one of its authors.

The broader picture is a 2026 meta-analysis of nine randomized trials and 615 people. It found associations with lower cholesterol, glucose and blood pressure, rated six of the nine trials as poor quality, judged the certainty of evidence low to very low, and concluded the findings “should not be interpreted as establishing the clinical efficacy of bergamot.” We go through the cholesterol research itself, trial by trial, on HealthyMag’s citrus bergamot page; this page is about what the products contain.

How to read a bergamot label

1. Find the extract amount and the serving it applies to. A 1,000 mg figure for two capsules is 500 mg per capsule.
2. Look for a polyphenol or flavonoid percentage or a milligram amount. If there is none, you cannot compare the product with any other or with a trial dose.
3. Ignore fresh-fruit equivalents and ratios as measures of strength. “Equivalent to 17,500 mg” and “25:1” describe inputs, not contents.
4. Check what else is in it. 41 of the 88 bergamot labels we read are combinations, and a combination that works may be working because of its other ingredients.
5. Know which trial dose you are aiming at. The trials we checked used 375 mg of an extract providing 150 mg of flavonoids, or 500 to 1,000 mg of BPF.

If you take a statin, other cholesterol medication or blood sugar medication, talk to your doctor before adding bergamot. One of the trials above studied it alongside rosuvastatin, which is a reason to involve the person managing your prescription, not a reason to adjust it yourself.

The bottom line

The milligram on the front of a citrus bergamot bottle is the least useful number on it. Of 47 single-ingredient labels in the NIH database, 19 never say how much polyphenol a serving contains, including every liquid and every gummy, and among the 28 that do, the declared content varies about five-fold, from 125 mg to 611 mg. The trials used defined extracts at 375 mg to 1,000 mg a day, and the best summary of them rates the evidence low to very low certainty. Buy the label that tells you what is in it, and treat the rest as unmeasured.