Beetroot Extract

Beetroot extract, often taken as beetroot juice, powder, or a concentrated shot, is a supplement derived from the root of Beta vulgaris, the common beet. Its main functional ingredient is inorganic nitrate, which beets accumulate from the soil and store at high levels, making beetroot one of the richest dietary sources of this compound ^[1]. The root also contains betalain pigments, chiefly the deep-red betanin, a betacyanin that is used industrially as a natural food coloring and contributes antioxidant activity ^[1].

Interest in beetroot centers on the nitrate-nitrite-nitric oxide pathway. After the nitrate in beetroot is swallowed, part of it is concentrated in saliva, where bacteria on the tongue reduce it to nitrite; the nitrite is then further reduced to nitric oxide, especially in tissues where oxygen is scarce ^[1]. Nitric oxide is a signaling gas that relaxes and widens blood vessels, and this chain gives the body an additional, food-based route to nitric oxide beyond the one built from the amino acid arginine ^[1].

Two areas dominate the research on beetroot. The first is blood pressure: controlled trials show that dietary nitrate from beetroot juice can lower blood pressure, with acute studies reporting reductions in systolic pressure in healthy adults ^[3]. The second is exercise. Beetroot supplementation has been found to reduce the oxygen cost of submaximal exercise, meaning the body uses less oxygen for the same workload, and to extend the time to exhaustion, effects documented in young adults and in clinical groups such as people with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and people with obesity ^[2][4][5]. A dose-response study found that these benefits plateau: increasing the nitrate dose beyond a moderate level produced no further improvement in exercise tolerance ^[2].

Beetroot is a food and is sold as a dietary supplement rather than a drug, in forms including juice, concentrated shots, dried powder, and capsules standardized for nitrate content. It is generally regarded as safe. The most noticeable and harmless effect is beeturia, a reddish or pink discoloration of the urine and sometimes the stool caused by the betalain pigments, which can be startling but is not a sign of a medical problem ^[1]. Because the blood-pressure effect depends on oral bacteria converting nitrate to nitrite, using antibacterial mouthwash can blunt beetroot's cardiovascular action ^[1].

Very safe for most people. The most common and harmless side effect is beeturia, a pink or red tint to urine and stool. It can lower blood pressure, so people on blood-pressure medication should be mindful of additive effects. Using antibacterial mouthwash can blunt the nitrate conversion by killing the oral bacteria that start the process.