Schisandra Berry
Schisandra chinensis
Schisandra is an adaptogenic berry whose lignans have been studied for liver enzyme values and for menopausal symptoms, and AlphaCleanse contains 27.5 mg of it per serving as a supporting botanical.
AlphaCleanse, 2-capsule serving
- Milk Thistle165 mg
- Spirulina110 mg
- Ginger110 mg
- Turmeric110 mg
- Dandelion Root55 mg
- Reishi MushroomReishi55 mg
- Beetroot55 mg
- Burdock Root27.5 mg
- Rhubarb Root27.5 mg
- Schisandra BerrySchisandra27.5 mg
- Nettle Leaf27.5 mg
- BioPerine2.75 mg
Every amount is printed on the label. No proprietary blend.
Schisandra (Schisandra chinensis, called wu wei zi, the five-flavour berry) is a red climbing-vine fruit used in Chinese medicine as a tonic.
Its characteristic compounds are dibenzocyclooctadiene lignans, a family that includes the schisandrins and the gomisins.
It is one of the few ingredients on this panel with a human trial that measured ALT and AST directly, which is why buyers ask about it.
It is also the ingredient on this panel with the clearest documented drug interaction, so read the safety section even if you skip the rest.
How much is in AlphaCleanse
In short: AlphaCleanse contains 27.5 mg of schisandra berry per 2-capsule serving, 1 of the 4 smallest amounts on its 12-ingredient panel.
27.5 mg of schisandra berry per 2-capsule serving.
That ties it with burdock root, rhubarb root and nettle leaf as one of the 4 smallest botanicals among the 12 ingredients, ahead only of BioPerine at 2.75 mg.
Milk thistle, the anchor of the formula, is 165 mg.
AlphaCleanse is made with organic ingredients, carries no proprietary blend, and prints every amount separately.
What the evidence shows
In short: the 1 trial that moved ALT and AST combined schisandra with sesamin and never published the schisandra amount.
The liver-relevant human trial is Chiu et al. (Phytotherapy Research, 2013, PMID 22610748). What it was:
- Randomised, parallel and placebo-controlled, in 40 people with borderline high ALT or AST, defined as 40 to 60 U/L, split 20 and 20.
- 4 tablets a day of a mixture of schisandra fruit extract and sesamin, for 5 months.
- ALT and AST fell in the treated group while total and direct bilirubin did not move.
- Plasma antioxidant capacity rose, and glutathione peroxidase and reductase activity increased.
Two limits matter.
The product combined schisandra with sesamin, a sesame lignan, so the result cannot be assigned to schisandra alone.
And the abstract does not state how many milligrams of schisandra each tablet contained, so there is no published number to compare our 27.5 mg against.
Two other randomised trials used schisandra alone.
Park and Kim (Climacteric, 2016, PMID 27763802) gave 36 completers aged 40 to 70 a schisandra extract or placebo for 6 weeks and found lower total Kupperman Index scores at week 12 (p = 0.042), mainly hot flushes, sweating and palpitations.
Park, Han and Park (International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, 2020, PMID 32260466) gave 45 post-menopausal women 1,000 mg a day of schisandra extract or starch for 12 weeks and reported higher quadriceps strength and lower resting lactate.
Our 27.5 mg is under 3% of the 1,000 mg used in that muscle trial, and no trial has tested schisandra at 27.5 mg.
We print the number anyway, which is the only reason you can run that comparison on our label.
The product those trials should be weighed against is the finished formula, and that is what our 12-week study (NCT07738744) is registered on.
Why this dose
In short: 27.5 mg is a supporting amount, because no published schisandra dose exists for anyone to match.
27.5 mg is a supporting amount rather than a clinical dose, and there is a specific reason no clinical dose exists to copy.
The one human trial that moved ALT and AST used an undisclosed amount of schisandra combined with sesamin, so nobody, us included, has a published schisandra number to match.
What the formula does have is a clear shape.
AlphaCleanse is an anchor with support built around it: milk thistle at 165 mg carries the clinical weight, and the remaining 11 ingredients add breadth at amounts printed individually on the panel.
Schisandra sits on the liver-oriented side of that arrangement with milk thistle and turmeric, at a traditional supporting level.
Held against a solo schisandra trial it will always look small, because it was never sold as a solo schisandra product.
Held against the liver formulas that list schisandra inside a proprietary blend with no amount beside it, 27.5 mg printed on a panel is the version you can actually check.
Safety and interactions
In short: schisandra raises tacrolimus exposure, so transplant patients and some statin users must ask before starting AlphaCleanse.
The interaction to take seriously is CYP3A4 and P-glycoprotein.
Xin et al. (British Journal of Clinical Pharmacology, 2007, PMID 17506780) gave 12 healthy male volunteers a Schisandra sphenanthera extract, 3 capsules twice daily for 13 days, and measured the effect on a single 2 mg oral dose of tacrolimus. What happened:
- Tacrolimus AUC rose by an average of 164%.
- Peak concentration rose by 227%.
- Apparent clearance fell by 49%.
Two qualifications. That was S. sphenanthera, a related species rather than the S. chinensis in AlphaCleanse, and it was a therapeutic extract dose rather than 27.5 mg of whole berry.
A later review of tacrolimus and herbal interactions (Abushammala, Pharmazie, 2021, PMID 34620272) lists schisandra among the herbs that raise tacrolimus exposure by inhibiting CYP450 enzymes or the P-glycoprotein efflux pump, in the same group as grapefruit juice, berberine, turmeric and ginger.
What that means in practice. 3 situations call for a conversation before you start:
- A transplant medicine such as tacrolimus or ciclosporin. Do not start AlphaCleanse without your transplant team's approval.
- A statin cleared by CYP3A4, meaning simvastatin, atorvastatin or lovastatin. Ask a pharmacist first; rosuvastatin and pravastatin are cleared differently.
- Any medicine with a narrow margin between a working dose and a toxic one.
This is a formula-level question rather than a schisandra-only one, because milk thistle at 165 mg also carries CYP inhibition data, and no interaction study exists on this formula as a whole.
Pregnancy and breastfeeding. Do not take AlphaCleanse if you are pregnant, breastfeeding or trying to conceive.
Schisandra carries longstanding pregnancy cautions in traditional use and there is no human pregnancy safety data for it at any dose.
The stronger reason sits elsewhere on the panel: rhubarb root is a stimulant laxative that European regulators contraindicate in pregnancy and lactation outright.
The 12-week AlphaCleanse study (NCT07738744) excluded women who were pregnant, breastfeeding or trying to conceive, which corroborates our position rather than showing that harm occurred.
Liver safety record. The NIH LiverTox database has no entry for schisandra, either as a scored ingredient or as a case report.
That is an absence of catalogued cases rather than a clearance, and it is weaker information than a scored entry in either direction.
Blood thinners. The AlphaCleanse study also excluded people on warfarin or antiplatelet therapy including clopidogrel and aspirin.
If you are on any of those, tell your prescriber before you start, mainly because ginger at 110 mg and turmeric at 110 mg have mild antiplatelet effects and milk thistle can slow warfarin clearance.
Stop and see a doctor if you develop dark urine, yellowing of the eyes or skin, or new itching.
Common questions
In short: ask a pharmacist about statins, and do not start AlphaCleanse on transplant medication without your team's approval.
Can I take AlphaCleanse with a statin?
Probably, with a pharmacist check first, and the answer depends on which statin.
Milk thistle at 165 mg and schisandra at 27.5 mg can both inhibit CYP3A4, the enzyme that clears simvastatin, atorvastatin and lovastatin, so in principle they could raise the level of those drugs in your blood.
A human study showed a Schisandra sphenanthera extract raising tacrolimus exposure by 164%, which establishes the mechanism is real in people even though the species and dose differ from ours.
Rosuvastatin and pravastatin are cleared by other routes.
No interaction study exists on this formula, so ask before you start.
Is 27.5 mg of schisandra enough to affect liver enzymes?
We make no claim that it does.
The trial that moved ALT and AST used a schisandra and sesamin combination for 5 months in 40 people with borderline enzyme values, and it never published how much schisandra was in a tablet, so there is no dose we could even claim to match.
Our 27.5 mg is a supporting amount in a 12-ingredient formula anchored on milk thistle at 165 mg.
Some verified AlphaCleanse customers report lower enzyme values on retest and others report no change, and we quote them as reported.
If ALT and AST are what you are watching, write today's values down before you start anything at all, so that whatever you take next gets measured rather than guessed.
Can I take AlphaCleanse if I am pregnant or breastfeeding?
No. Do not take AlphaCleanse while pregnant, breastfeeding or trying to conceive.
Schisandra carries traditional pregnancy cautions and has no human pregnancy safety data.
More decisively, the formula also contains rhubarb root, a stimulant laxative contraindicated in pregnancy and lactation by the European Medicines Agency, and dandelion, burdock, nettle and spirulina have no safety data in this group either.
The 12-week clinical study excluded pregnant, breastfeeding and trying-to-conceive women, which is why we hold this line rather than the softer one that used to sit on our site.
I take a transplant medication. Can I take AlphaCleanse?
Not without your transplant team's approval, and our expectation is that they will say no.
Schisandra inhibits CYP3A4 and P-glycoprotein, the two routes that control how much tacrolimus and ciclosporin reach your blood, and a human study measured a 164% rise in tacrolimus exposure with a schisandra extract.
Transplant drugs have a narrow window between working and toxic, and no study has tested this formula in transplant patients, so 27.5 mg does not settle the question on its own.
Take the full AlphaCleanse label to your transplant team before you take a single capsule, and let them rule on it.
The other 11 ingredients
AlphaCleanse contains schisandra berry at 27.5 mg per serving.
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Citations on this page: PMID 22610748, PMID 27763802, PMID 32260466, PMID 17506780, PMID 34620272
Last reviewed: 2026-09-17