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Not medical advice. The Atlas is not a substitute for a clinician who can examine you.

ForsLean (Coleus forskohlii)

Sabinsa, standardized forskolin extract

Evidence grade 2 of 5, Thin. Read how the Atlas grades evidence.

The written rationale for this grade is still being prepared.

FDA
Dietary ingredient (not FDA-evaluated for efficacy)

Reference only. Not medical advice.

What can go wrong

Forskolin can lower blood pressure and interact with antihypertensives/anticoagulants. Testosterone evidence is a single small study.

This is something to take to a clinician. The Atlas can tell you what is known about forslean (coleus forskohlii) in general. It cannot tell you what is happening in your body, and the difference matters most for exactly the symptoms that bring people to this page.

ForsLean is a Sabinsa-branded Coleus forskohlii root extract standardized to ~10% forskolin, a compound that raises intracellular cAMP. It is best known for a small body-composition study (Godard 2005) that also reported a free-testosterone increase in overweight men. The mechanism is biologically plausible (cAMP is downstream of LH signaling in Leydig cells), but the human testosterone evidence rests largely on that single small trial.

A cAMP-raising extract with one suggestive testosterone study.

What people take it for

These are the reasons people give for taking it. They are not effects it has been shown to have.

  • Body composition; free-testosterone claim

What people get wrong

  • Often saidForskolin is a proven testosterone booster

    ActuallyOne small study (Godard 2005) reported a free-testosterone increase; it has not been robustly replicated. cAMP plausibility is not the same as demonstrated efficacy.

Who profits, and who pushes back

Nobody is named here yet, because we have not done that work on this entry. Read that as unfinished. Somebody almost certainly sells this, and somebody almost certainly disputes it. Assume both until we have checked.

At a glance

Supplier
Sabinsa
Standardization
~10% forskolin
Mechanism
Raises cAMP (LH-pathway downstream)

What this entry does not yet cover

What follows is unfinished work on our side, not a finding about ForsLean (Coleus forskohlii). A short entry is not a safe entry.

  • Timeline. We have not built the dated record of research and regulatory events.
  • Cost and market. We have not documented what it sells for or who sells it.
  • Supply chain. We have not mapped where it is made.
  • Who uses it. We have not documented the user groups.
  • What could change. No forward-looking summary yet.
  • How it compares. We have not set it against the alternatives.
  • Children and teenagers. We have not checked what is known about younger people.
  • Where we land. We have not taken a position on this yet.

Sources

The studies below are named and described, but not linked. You cannot open them from here and check our reading against them, which means this page is our summary of the literature rather than a document you can verify. Weigh it accordingly until the links exist.

The studies that matter

  • Godard et al. (ForsLean)2005

    250 mg of 10% forskolin twice daily, 12 weeks: reported increased free testosterone and improved body composition in overweight men