Do luteolin supplements work?
Not on their own, so far. In the one dummy-pill trial we found, luteolin alone did no better. Most hopeful results come from one mix, PEA with luteolin, mostly for lost smell after COVID-19.
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Does a luteolin supplement work?
There’s no good proof yet. We found just one trial of luteolin alone against a dummy pill. It gave 200 or 400 mg a day to 11 veterans with Gulf War illness, a long-term mix of pain, tiredness and other symptoms.
Neither dose eased symptoms more than the dummy pill.
| Who was studied | What they took | What happened |
|---|---|---|
| 11 veterans with Gulf War illness | Luteolin alone, 200 or 400 mg a day | No better than a dummy pill |
| 202 people with lost smell after COVID-19 | PEA with luteolin, with or without smell training | Best results with the mix plus smell training |
| 50 people with lost smell after an infection | PEA with luteolin plus smell training | No clear extra gain over training alone |
| 48 people with frontotemporal dementia (a type of dementia that often changes behaviour or language first) | PEA with luteolin, twice a day for 24 weeks | Less decline on the main score, no difference on most others |
| 50 children with autism | Luteolin with quercetin, no dummy pill group | Behaviour scores improved, but 27 of 50 were irritable for a while |
Sources: Hodgin 2021; Di Stadio 2023; Gellrich 2024; Assogna 2025; Taliou 2013
Eleven people is a tiny trial. It’s like judging a restaurant on one meal. It can’t rule luteolin out, but it gives you no reason to buy it either.
So what’s the mix? It’s PEA with luteolin.
PEA is a fatty substance your body makes. Most of the hopeful results come from that pair, not from luteolin alone.
Before you buy, check the label. Is it luteolin alone, or luteolin with PEA?
What is luteolin?
Luteolin is a flavonoid, one of a big family of natural plant chemicals. You already eat it. It’s in carrots, peppers, celery, olive oil, peppermint, thyme, rosemary and oregano.
Most of the exciting claims online come from lab dishes and animals. A review of 15 studies in rats and mice found it eased memory problems. Its authors say to treat that with caution.
Cancer claims are the same. A 2025 review says luteolin hasn’t been proven to work against cancer in human trials yet.
Want more of it? Add herbs, peppers and celery to your meals. For similar plant compounds, see our guides to quercetin and antioxidants.
Does PEA with luteolin help lost smell?
It may, when you add it to smell training. In the biggest trial, 202 people had lost smell for over 6 months after COVID-19. Smell training means sniffing a set of strong scents every day.
| What people did for 90 days | Share whose smell score rose by more than 3 points |
|---|---|
| Smell training plus PEA with luteolin once a day | 89.2% |
| PEA with luteolin once a day, no training | 41.6% |
| PEA with luteolin twice a day, no training | 40% |
| Smell training plus a dummy pill | 36.8% |
Source: Di Stadio 2023
The take-home: the mix did best alongside training, not instead of it. A review of 5 studies with 441 people called it a possible future add-on to training.
Not every trial agrees. In a German trial of 50 people, the extra gain over training alone may be limited.
Start with smell training, which the NHS says can help some people. More on PEA itself is in our PEA supplement guide.
How much luteolin did trials use?
None of the sources we checked gives a safe or advised dose. So these are trial doses, not doses to copy.
What the luteolin trials gave
- 1
Alone
200 or 400 mg a day, a month at each dose.
- 2
With PEA
70 mg of luteolin with 700 mg of PEA, once or twice a day.
- 3
Children
100 mg per 10 kg of weight a day, with quercetin.
- 4
Length
From 1 month to 6 months.
Sources: Hodgin 2021; Di Stadio 2023; Assogna 2025; Taliou 2013
The big smell trial used one product, Glialia. Each sachet holds 700 mg of PEA and 70 mg of luteolin.
Who paid? In the dementia trial, the senior researcher had funding from Epitech, the company that makes Glialia.
Comparing products? Check the mg of luteolin per capsule, and whether PEA is in it too.
Is luteolin safe?
In the short trials, mostly yes. The veterans coped well with it, and the big smell trial reported no side effects.
But in the autism study, 27 of 50 children were more irritable for 1 to 8 weeks. And safety data for PEA with luteolin come from small groups over short periods.
Luteolin capsules are plant extracts, so we follow the NHS advice on herbal medicines. It says they aren’t tested the same way as standard medicines.
Before you take a luteolin supplement
- Skip it if you’re pregnant or breastfeeding.
- Skip it if you have kidney or liver problems.
- Don’t give it to children. The NHS says not enough is known about herbal medicines’ safety in children.
- Check with a pharmacist first if you take any other medicine, even ones you buy without a prescription.
- Know the medicines that don’t mix well with herbal medicines: statins, antidepressants, diabetes or blood pressure tablets, blood thinners such as warfarin, and the combined pill. Mixing them may cause harmful effects or stop your medicine working.
- Read your medicine’s leaflet to see if it’s safe to take with herbal medicines.
Source: NHS: herbal medicines
Never stop or change a prescribed medicine without your prescriber. See also herbal supplements and the liver.
When to speak to a GP
Thinking of luteolin for smell or memory? Get the cause checked first. See a GP if:
- Your sense of smell doesn’t go back to normal in a few weeks. The GP will check for causes such as sinusitis (a sinus infection) or nasal polyps (small growths in the nose).
- Memory problems are affecting your day-to-day life. Any treatment you need may work better if it’s started early.
- An older relative is becoming more and more forgetful. Ask a GP whether it could be a sign of dementia.
- You take a prescribed medicine and want to add luteolin. A pharmacist or GP can check it first.
Lost your smell? You may not smell gas leaks, fires or food that’s gone off. The charity Fifth Sense has safety advice for living without smell.
See also brain and memory supplements and long COVID blood tests.