Acerola pulp in elite athletes: immune and metabolic effects
What it found
In 22 elite endurance athletes, three weeks of acerola pulp lowered some immune and inflammatory markers and improved glucose, urea and liver enzyme levels, but did not change oxidative stress markers.
What they found
Studies in people
Immune and inflammatory markers
After acerola, athletes had lower levels of IgG and IgA immunoglobulins, including all IgG subgroups, and lower levels of the complement component C1q, an inflammatory marker. Neutrophil and white blood cell counts also fell slightly.
Metabolic markers
Serum glucose fell from 4.8 to 4.6 mmol/L, urea from 6.3 to 5.8 mmol/L, and the liver enzymes ALT and AST also dropped. The authors suggest this shows acerola may help metabolic flexibility.
Oxidative stress
Acerola supplementation did not change the two oxidative stress markers measured, total antioxidant status and glutathione reductase activity.
Other findings
Acerola composition
The acerola pulp used contained 873 mg of vitamin C per 100 g and was rich in flavonoids, especially quercitrin and aceronidin. Various carotenoids were also detected.
What the authors conclude
“Acerola supplementation appears to play a beneficial role in elite endurance sports by improving low-grade inflammatory status and metabolic flexibility.”
Also in their conclusions
- They say acerola supplementation appears to play a beneficial role in elite endurance sports by improving low-grade inflammatory status and metabolic flexibility.
- They suggest that acerola supplements could be recommended for athletes as well as the general population.
- They call for long-term, larger studies to confirm the current data, assess the possible impact on sports performance, and check for side effects of chronic use.
How it was done
Acerola is promoted as a superfood, but its role in elite sport had not been studied in detail. The authors wanted to see whether regular acerola affects the immune system, oxidative stress and metabolism in elite athletes.
They gave 22 elite endurance athletes 300 g of acerola pulp per day for three weeks. Blood samples were taken before and after to measure biochemical, hematological and immunological parameters.
What it can’t tell you
- The study was small, with only 22 athletes, so the results may not apply to all people.
- It lasted only three weeks, so it cannot show what happens with longer use.
- It cannot show whether these changes lead to better sports performance.
Who paid
- Funding
- Funded by Ministerstvo Zdravotnictví Ceské Republiky; Univerzita Karlova v Praze; NextGenerationEU; Ministerstvo Školství, Mládeže a Tělovýchovy (from the PubMed record).
- Conflicts
- Declarations. Ethical Approval: The study was approved by the Ethics Committee of the CASRI (Sports Research Institute of the Czech Armed Forces) (Nos. 6/1–6/8 2019). Competing Interests: The authors declare no competing interests.
- Authors work at
- General University Hospital in Prague and 1 st Faculty of Medicine, Czech Republic; General University Hospital in Prague and 1st Faculty of Medicine, Czech Republic; University of Chemistry and Technology, Czech Republic
The paper
- Title
- The Effect of Acerola Intake on Metabolic and Immunological Parameters in Elite Athletes
- Type
- Study
- Evidence
- Studies in people
- Summarised from
- Full text
- Licence
- CC BY. Words in quotation marks are the authors’; the rest is our summary.
- Cite
- Vítek L, Hajšlová J, Bátovský M, et al (2025). The Effect of Acerola Intake on Metabolic and Immunological Parameters in Elite Athletes. Plant foods for human nutrition (Dordrecht, Netherlands). doi:10.1007/s11130-025-01434-4Free full textPubMed 41269386DOI
Summary written 30 Sep 2026. Check it against the paper before it changes what you eat. How we summarise papers · Report an error