Educational information, not medical advice — ask your doctor or midwife.
Carob is the dried pod of the carob tree, Ceratonia siliqua. The pods are roasted and ground into a sweet brown powder used in place of cocoa. In Italy the tree is called carrubo.
The tree grows all around the Mediterranean. Its pods are sweet on their own and contain no caffeine. The hard seeds give a food thickener called carob bean gum, or locust bean gum.
People use carob in two very different ways. It is a plain food, like flour or syrup. It is also sold as a fibre supplement and added to some infant formulas.
The short verdict: carob is well tolerated, but the human evidence is thin. Two small trials hint at a drop in cholesterol. Traditional use is not proof that it works, and long use is not proof that it is safe.
Most of carob's suggested effects are put down to its fibre and its tannins.
Carob pod is close to a third insoluble fibre. In test tube and animal work, this fibre binds bile acids in the gut. That may be one reason carob pulp lowered cholesterol in two small human trials.
Carob also holds condensed tannins (plant compounds with a dry, bitter taste). In laboratory tests, tannins bind water and slow some gut bacteria. Whether that firms up stools in people is not well established.
Carob bean gum comes from the seed, not the pulp. It swells and thickens liquid. This action is physical, not chemical.
That thickening is why the gum is added to anti-reflux infant formula. Thicker milk is harder for a baby to bring back up. It does not change the underlying reflux.
Carob powder is often sold as a mood or energy helper because it looks like cocoa. There is no good human evidence behind that idea. Carob lacks the caffeine and theobromine that drive cocoa's effects.
Carob is sold both as an everyday food and as a supplement.
Food forms:
Roasted carob powder or flour, used like cocoa in baking and hot drinks.
Carob chips and bars, often with added sugar and fat.
Carob syrup, a thick dark sweetener common in Mediterranean countries.
Carob pod tea, made from chopped roasted pods.
Supplement and added forms:
Carob fibre powder or capsules, made from the pulp and sold for cholesterol or gut health.
Carob bean gum, shown as locust bean gum or E410 in ice cream, sauces and soft cheese.
Anti-reflux infant formula thickened with carob bean gum, sold in pharmacies across Europe.
Baking powder and fibre powder are not the same product. Baking carob is mostly sugar. Fibre carob has much of the sugar stripped out.
Carob has been grown around the Mediterranean for thousands of years. Greek, Roman and Arab writers all described it. The Italian name is carrubo.
Carob seeds were once prized for being even in weight. Traders used them on their scales for gold and gems. The word carat traces back to that habit.
In European folk practice, carob pod powder was given to children with loose stools. Carob syrup was taken for sore throats and coughs. The pods also fed goats, pigs and horses through dry years.
The tree earned the name St John's bread from an old story about John the Baptist eating the pods. In the twentieth century carob became popular in health food shops as a caffeine-free stand-in for chocolate.
Stop carob and get urgent help if you have swelling of the lips, face or throat, hives, or trouble breathing. These can be signs of a serious allergic reaction.
Get urgent help for a baby given thickened feeds who has a swollen belly, blood in the stool, repeated vomiting or who stops feeding.
See a doctor within a day or two if diarrhoea in a child lasts more than two days, or if there are signs of dehydration. Dry nappies, a dry mouth and a floppy, sleepy baby all count.
Book a routine appointment if your cholesterol is not improving, or if bloating and belly pain carry on after you stop the fibre.
In the EU, the UK and the US, carob is an ordinary food. Locust bean gum is an approved additive (E410 in Europe) and is treated as generally safe in the US.
Carob fibre capsules and powders are sold as food supplements or dietary supplements. They are not approved medicines, so no health claim on the pack has been tested as a drug claim.
Evidence grades and traditional-use labels are explained in our methodology. Nothing here is medical advice.
What it is typically used for, usual dose, cautions, and the study behind it where real trial data exists.
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