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Butcher's broom

Supplement botanical heart & metabolic
Aka: Ruscus aculeatus
Brands seen in Singapore: Swanson Vitamins, Nature's Way, Nature's Answer, Solaray, Nutricost
Not medical advice. Check with your doctor or pharmacist before you start, stop or change the timing of anything you take.
How to use
What it’s for
Leg symptoms and swelling in chronic venous disease
Pros & cons
Pros
  • Grade a evidence for leg pain and heaviness
  • Reviewers rank it alongside MPFF as best evidenced
  • RCT data support relief of cvd symptoms and edema
Cons
  • Evidence is for the combination, not ruscus alone
  • Not among the phlebotonics in the 2020 cochrane review
  • Acidity, epigastralgia and diarrhoea reported in 7.9%
Sources
  1. The role of venoactive compounds in the treatment of chronic venous disease (Gloviczki, Kakkos, Urbanek, Chuback, Nicolaides; J Vasc Surg Venous Lymphat Disord 2025) — Table I dosages and Table IV evidence grades · read 2026-08-27
    what it says
    “Micronized purified flavonoid fraction (MPFF) and Ruscus extract combined with hesperidin methyl chalcone and ascorbic acid had the highest, mostly level A, quality of evidence.”
  2. Clinical Perspectives and Management of Edema in Chronic Venous Disease—What about Ruscus? (Bihari, Guex, Jawien, Szolnoky; Medicines 2022) · read 2026-08-27
    what it says
    “Data from randomized controlled trials support guideline recommendations for the use of Ruscus extract, hesperidin methyl chalcone and vitamin C to relieve major CVD-related symptoms and edema.”
  3. Phlebotonics for venous insufficiency (Martinez-Zapata et al., Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews 2020, CD003229.pub4) · read 2026-08-27
    what it says
    “Moderate-certainty evidence suggests that phlebotonics probably reduce oedema slightly in the lower legs, compared with placebo … probably make little or no difference in QoL … probably increase adverse events slightly”
  4. HSA — Guidelines on Prohibited and Restricted Ingredients in Health Supplements and Traditional Medicines, GL-CHPB-1-012 Rev. No. 001 (Oct 2025), Annex A (105 rows) and Annex B (4 rows) — read from the cached PDF text on disk · read 2026-08-27
    what it says
    “The objective of this guideline is to highlight the substances of concern when used in HS and TM and is not meant to be an exhaustive list.”
  5. HSA — Health Supplements Guidelines, GL-CHPB-3-001 Rev. No. 020 (January 2026), section 4.8 with Tables 4 and 5 (vitamins and minerals limits) — read from the cached PDF text on disk · read 2026-08-27
    what it says
    “HS for use by the general adult population should not contain vitamins and minerals exceeding the stipulated limits stated in Tables 4 and 5.”
  6. HSA — Health Supplements Guidelines, GL-CHPB-3-001 Rev. No. 020 (January 2026), section 6.6 and Table 6: diseases/conditions not allowed for health supplements — read from the cached PDF text on disk · read 2026-08-27
    what it says
    “HS must not be labelled, advertised or promoted for any specific medicinal purpose … Blood and circulatory system: Hypertension, stroke, cholesterol disorders, reduces cholesterol, regulates platelet aggregation, coagulation defects, arteriosclerosis”
  7. iHerb Singapore — Butcher's Broom category page, default order, '1 - 6 of 6 results', read 27 Aug 2026 via WebFetch · read 2026-08-27
    what it says
    “Butcher's Broom … Swanson Vitamins … Nature's Way … Nature's Answer … Solaray … Nutricost … Solaray”
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Updated 2026-08-29. Every line above traces to a numbered source. Kozen-X is not a medical device and does not give medical advice. It lists what published sources have written down — nothing more. A pair not listed is unrecorded, not cleared. Before you start, stop or re-time anything, talk to your doctor or pharmacist.