Untitled Document
Tea & Extracts
Health food stores and online vendors sell a wide variety of bilberry teas. The bags can contain dried berries, leaves, or both.
Alternatively, you can buy dried bilberries and make the tea yourself as follows:
- • Place 1-3 teaspoons of bilberries in a cup
- • Add boiling water
- • Let steep for 10-15 minutes
Bilberry extracts can be taken as tablets, capsules, and liquids. Eye drops with the extract are also available. All extracts should be standardized to their anthocyanin content. The best-researched ones are:
- • Bilberry VMA (25% anthocyanins)
- • Mirtoselect (36% anthocyanins)
- • Mirtogenol (80 mg Mirtoselect plus 40 mg French pine extract)
Dosage
Because bilberries are not approved by the FDA for any conditions, there is no official dose. Users and supplement manufacturers have established unofficial doses based on their experience.
The doses most commonly used in clinical trials were:
- • Eye disorders: 160-480 mg extract (59-180 mg anthocyanins) per day
- • Inflammation: 250-500 g berries per day
- • Diabetes: 50-300 g berries per meal
- • Cholesterol: 65-300 g berries or 320 mg extract per day
- • Weight loss: 100 g berries per day
- • Ulcerative colitis: 160 g/day of a supplement with 60% dried berries and 26% juice
- • Fatty liver disease: 320 mg anthocyanins per day
How Long Does It Take to Work?
In clinical trials, bilberries and their extracts were generally taken for 8-12 weeks and benefits were rarely seen before one month. Chronic conditions were followed up for 6-12 months. *