What is Calafate?

Calafate (Berberis microphylla) is a thorny shrub from Patagonia, in southern Chile and Argentina. It makes small dark blue-purple berries. People eat them fresh or turn them into jam, juice and liqueur.

The berries, and sometimes the bark and root, are also used in home remedies. Mapuche and rural Patagonian families use them for upset stomach and for sore mouth and throat. They also use them to build you up again after illness.

Here is the honest verdict, up front. The berry is a well-liked traditional food with a long local history. But no good human trials show that calafate treats or prevents any disease.

Most of what is claimed for it comes from lab work. That work looked at the berry pigments and at berberine, a compound in the bark and root of Berberis plants.

Traditional use tells you that people have used a plant for a long time. On its own, it does not tell you the plant works. Keep that in mind for everything below; we will not say it again in each section.

How does Calafate work?

Nobody has shown clearly how calafate acts in the human body. The two parts of the plant are also not the same thing.

The berries are rich in anthocyanins. These are the deep purple pigments also found in blackcurrants and blueberries. In test tubes, these pigments mop up reactive molecules and slow some gut enzymes.

Whether that changes anything you could measure in a person eating calafate jam is not known.

The bark and root hold berberine. This is a bitter yellow alkaloid (a plant compound with strong effects in the body). Berberine has been studied on its own for blood sugar and cholesterol.

It also changes the way the liver and gut handle many medicines. That is the part of the plant most likely to cause real effects, good or bad.

So it is fair to say calafate holds compounds that are active in the body. It is not fair to say calafate has been shown to treat anything.

What forms does Calafate come in?

Fresh berries, eaten in season in Patagonia.

Jam, jelly, syrup, juice and the liqueur known as licor de calafate.

Dried berry powder and freeze-dried berry extract, sold as a supplement or smoothie ingredient.

Bark or root decoction (a strong simmered water extract). This is used in tradition and is far less common in shops.

Berberine capsules. These are usually made from other Berberis species or from goldenseal, not from calafate. They still raise the same interaction issues.

Where it comes from:

Calafate has grown wild across Patagonia for as long as people have lived there. The Mapuche and Tehuelche peoples ate the fruit. They also used the roots as a yellow dye.

They made bark preparations as a bitter remedy. These were taken for stomach complaints and mouth sores.

A well-known Patagonian saying holds that whoever eats calafate will return to Patagonia. The berry turns up on local crests, jams and tourist shelves all over the region.

It is a true staple of one regional tradition. It is not a remedy shared across many healing systems.

What does Calafate help with?

• Mild stomach upset and indigestion: This is the most common traditional use, usually as a bitter bark or root tea. Bitter plants have a long record of being used this way across many cultures. No human trial has tested calafate for indigestion, so treat it as a folk remedy rather than a treatment.
• Sore mouth and sore throat: Patagonian home use includes rinsing or gargling with a cooled berry or bark preparation. Berberine is unfriendly to some bacteria in the lab. That has not been tested in people with sore throats, and it does not replace care for a fever or a throat that keeps getting worse.
• General use as an antioxidant-rich food: This is the best-supported role: calafate is a genuinely nutrient-dense berry, high in anthocyanins and vitamin C. Eating colourful fruit is sensible. High antioxidant scores in a test tube do not mean the fruit prevents any specific illness.
• Blood sugar support: Most claims here borrow from berberine research, and berberine is in the bark and root, not the fruit pulp you eat. Some cell and animal studies with calafate berry extract report slowed sugar absorption. There are no published human trials of calafate for blood sugar, and berry products are not a substitute for diabetes treatment.
• Minor skin and wound washing: Traditionally a cooled bark decoction was used to wash small cuts or irritated skin. Evidence is limited to laboratory work on berberine against bacteria. For anything red, swollen, spreading or slow to heal, see a doctor rather than washing it with plant tea.

Which foods are rich in Calafate?

1. Fresh calafate berries: the plant itself, eaten in season in Patagonia
2. Calafate jam and jelly: the most common way the fruit is eaten outside the region
3. Calafate juice and syrup: concentrated fruit, so also concentrated sugar
4. Licor de calafate: a sweet Patagonian liqueur; it contains alcohol, so it is not a health food
5. Freeze-dried calafate powder: added to smoothies and yoghurt

Practical Tips:

The fruit is a food with a long safe history; the bark and root are not food and should not be treated as one.

What are the side effects of Calafate?

• Loose stools or diarrhoea, especially with large amounts of fruit
• Stomach cramps or nausea
• Purple staining of the mouth, teeth and stool from the pigments
• Bitter taste and dry mouth from bark preparations
• Constipation or stomach pain from berberine-containing bark or root
• Low blood sugar if combined with diabetes medicines
• Allergic reaction such as rash, itching or swelling (uncommon)

Good to know:

Eating calafate berries is about as risky as eating any other tart berry: the usual problem is a loose stomach from eating too many.

The bark and root are a different matter, because of berberine. Stomach upset is the common complaint there, and the bigger issue is what berberine does to other medicines in your body.

Stop and get advice if you get a rash, swelling of the lips or tongue, trouble breathing, yellowing of the skin or eyes, or stomach pain that will not settle.

How much Calafate should you take?

• Recommended daily: No safe or effective dose has been established for calafate as a medicine. As a food, a normal serving of fresh berries is a handful, roughly 80 to 100 g, and jam is eaten as jam. This is the use with the longest safety record. Berry powder supplements are usually sold at 1 to 5 g per day, which reflects what makers chose rather than what research supports. Bark and root preparations have no reliable published dose, and they are the source of berberine. If you are pregnant, breastfeeding, on regular medicines, or caring for a baby, do not use them at all.
• Best time of day: No particular time matters. Bitter bark teas were traditionally taken before meals; berries and berry powders are usually taken in the morning with breakfast.
• With or without food: Take berry powders with food to lower the chance of stomach upset. Bitter bark teas were traditionally taken shortly before eating.
• Time to effect: Not established. There is no measured effect to time. Traditional stomach-settling use is expected within an hour or two, which is the usual pattern for any warm bitter drink.
• How long to take it: Eating the berries as food needs no time limit. If you try a berry supplement, give it a few weeks and then stop and think honestly about whether anything changed. If nothing has, there is no reason to keep buying it. Do not take bark or root preparations, or berberine capsules, for long stretches without a doctor or pharmacist reviewing your other medicines first.