Evodia rutaecarpa

Evodia rutaecarpa is the plant which bears the berries evodia fructae (Fruits of Evodia), which are eaten in Traditional Chinese Medicine as a warming technique. The plant is also touted to reduce pain and gastrointestinal distress, and be anti-cancer.

It has been investigated as a fat burner, but no significantly promising evidence has been shown at this moment in time. It does appear to make animals feel hotter and quite reliably so, but this is a combination of increased heat expenditure (which is a fat burning effect) and minimizing the perception of cold via TRPV1 agonism, similar to the red pepper extract capsaicin. This combination may make one feel warmer despite not increasing caloric expenditure much.

Two studies have been conducted on animals showing anti-obesity effects, but these appear to not be related to the warmth effect of Evodia fruit and they do not necessarily mean it can be used to burn fat.

Beyond that, it shows promise as an anti-cancer agent through some relatively unique mechanisms and shows limited use as a supplement; taking the active ingredients (evodiamine, rutaecarpine) out of the fruit and into a supplemental capsule drastically reduces oral bioavailability. Isolated supplements may be quite worthless outside of the colon and stomach, with fruit or an ethanolic fruit extract being needed to reach the blood in appreciable amounts