Ursolic Acid

ID: ursolic_acid

Aliases: apple peel triterpenoid

Type: compound

Route/form: oral or route depends on studied product

Status: supplement_or_research

Evidence level: preclinical

Best data tier: direct preclinical; adjacent human controlled/review

Support scope: human, non-human/mechanistic

Source types: human_rct_negative, preclinical

Linked sources: 2

Broad outcomes: Fat loss / metabolic health, Muscle growth / performance / recovery, Safety / regulatory

Reading note: These are curation notes anchored to linked sources, not a clinical recommendation or protocol.

Targets / mechanism

• skeletal-muscle atrophy signatures
• IGF-1/insulin signaling hypotheses
• muscle mass

Optimization domains

• muscle hypertrophy
• body composition
• natural product
• skeptical priority

Research basis

• A prominent preclinical paper identified ursolic acid as increasing muscle mass and reducing atrophy signatures in mice.
• It is a common natural-anabolic claim and should be represented in the graph.

Limits, risks, and missing evidence

• A human resistance-training/high-protein trial found no additional effect on muscle strength or mass.
• The repository should rank this below human-positive hypertrophy entries despite strong informal hype language.

Risk flags

• mixed evidence
• negative human rct
• standardization uncertainty
• hype risk

Linked papers, labels, and reviews

1. Human skeletal muscle atrophy signatures identify ursolic acid as a compound that increases muscle mass
   preclinical / pubmed_ursolic_mrna_muscle_2011
   Mouse muscle atrophy and hypertrophy source.
2. Ursolic acid has no additional effect on muscle strength and mass in active men
   human_rct_negative / pubmed_ursolic_human_null_2020
   Human resistance-training/high-protein trial tempering anabolic claims.