Ghee contains conjugated linoleic acid (CLA), and Indian studies have measured between about 6 and 20 mg per gram of fat, depending on what the animals ate and how the ghee was made. That is a small amount: the human trials of CLA used purified supplements at around 3.2 g a day, and the studies of ghee itself were done in rats. If you are thinking about CLA for any health reason, follow your doctor's advice.
At a glance
- A 2008 study at the National Dairy Research Institute, Karnal, measured 6.93 to 20.07 mg of CLA per gram of fat in cow ghee and 5.83 to 16.87 mg in buffalo ghee.
- In that study, cows fed green berseem fodder gave ghee with more CLA, and the indigenous method gave nearly twice the CLA of the creamery method in cow ghee.
- A 2006 Karnal study of 18 Murrah buffaloes found 8.2 mg of CLA per gram of ghee fat on concentrate feed and 18.8 mg on mostly berseem.
- A 2007 meta-analysis of 18 human trials of purified CLA supplements found 0.09 kg a week more fat loss than placebo at a median 3.2 g a day.
- The only study of CLA-enriched ghee we found, from 2013, was in 24 female Wistar rats, so it says nothing direct about people.
What is conjugated linoleic acid?
CLA is not one fat but a family of forms of linoleic acid whose double bonds sit next to each other, a "conjugated" arrangement. In cows and buffaloes it is formed in the rumen from unsaturated fats in the feed, ends up in milk fat, and travels with that fat into butter and ghee.
A 2021 review led by Teagasc researchers describes CLA as "the various LA isomers which consist of a conjugated double bond arrangement" and says partial breakdown of polyunsaturated fats in the rumen produces "over twenty CLA isomers". Pasture grazing gives milk fat a large share of cis-9, trans-11 CLA, known as rumenic acid. Another form, trans-10, cis-12 CLA, was among the purified forms tested in human supplement trials, which did not test the CLA found in ghee.
How much CLA is in ghee?
The measured figures we could find run from 5.83 to 20.07 mg of CLA per gram of fat, all from Indian research at the National Dairy Research Institute in Karnal. The range is wide because the studies deliberately changed what the animals ate and how the ghee was made.
In the 2008 study by Tyagi and colleagues, published in the Pakistan Journal of Agricultural Sciences, ten crossbred cows and ten Murrah buffaloes in early lactation were split into four groups of five. One cow group and one buffalo group were fed berseem, a green clover fodder, with wheat straw; the other two were fed a concentrate mixture with wheat straw, for 12 weeks. Ghee was made from each group's milk by an indigenous method and by the creamery (commercial) method. A 2006 study by the same team fed 18 Murrah buffaloes three diets for 60 days.
| Product | CLA (mg per g fat) | Animal, feed and method | Study type |
|---|---|---|---|
| Cow ghee | 10.40 and 20.07 | Crossbred cows on berseem; creamery and indigenous method | Feeding study with lab analysis, 2008 |
| Cow ghee | 6.93 and 12.13 | Crossbred cows on concentrate; creamery and indigenous method | Feeding study with lab analysis, 2008 |
| Buffalo ghee | 10.38 and 16.87 | Murrah buffaloes on berseem; creamery and indigenous method | Feeding study with lab analysis, 2008 |
| Buffalo ghee | 5.83 and 7.59 | Murrah buffaloes on concentrate; creamery and indigenous method | Feeding study with lab analysis, 2008 |
| Buffalo ghee | 8.2, 12.7 and 18.8 | Murrah buffaloes on concentrate, half berseem, mostly berseem | Feeding study with lab analysis, 2006 |
| Buffalo ghee | 12.18 and 19.54 | Creamery method, buffaloes on two oilseed-cake concentrates | Ghee fed to rats, 2013 |
The 2008 abstract gives each pair as two numbers and says CLA "increased two folds in ghee prepared by indigenous method", so we read the lower figure in each pair as creamery ghee and the higher as indigenous ghee.
Why does feed change the CLA in ghee?
Because CLA is made from the fats an animal eats. The Teagasc-led review links the pasture effect to unsaturated fat in fresh grass, especially alpha-linolenic acid, which the rumen converts in part to CLA. In both Karnal studies, animals fed berseem gave milk and ghee with markedly more CLA than animals fed mainly concentrate.
In the 2008 study, milk CLA averaged 19.55 and 16.38 mg per gram of fat in the berseem-fed cows and buffaloes, against 6.44 and 6.78 in the concentrate-fed groups. In the 2006 buffalo study, ghee from the mostly berseem diet held 18.8 mg per gram of fat against 8.2 on concentrate, about 2.3 times as much (18.8 ÷ 8.2). The major fraction of CLA was the cis-9, trans-11 form.
The same review reports higher CLA in milk from pasture than from winter diets. Our article on what grass-fed ghee actually means covers what such feeding does and does not guarantee on a label.
Does the way ghee is made change its CLA?
In the one study that compared methods, yes. Ghee made by an indigenous method held more CLA than creamery ghee from the same milk, in both species and on both diets. The gap was larger in cow ghee than in buffalo ghee, and it was largest of all when green fodder and the indigenous method were combined.
Worked from the abstract's figures, indigenous cow ghee held about 1.9 times the CLA of creamery cow ghee on berseem (20.07 ÷ 10.40) and about 1.75 times on concentrate (12.13 ÷ 6.93). In buffalo ghee the rise was about 63 per cent on berseem (16.87 ÷ 10.38) and 30 per cent on concentrate (7.59 ÷ 5.83); the authors summarise it as 40 to 50 per cent.
Two cautions. The abstract does not describe the indigenous method, so this is not a direct test of bilona ghee. And it is one study of 20 animals, reported at a conference: it shows method can move the figure, not what any ghee you buy contains.
What do human studies say about CLA?
The human evidence comes from purified CLA supplements, not from ghee or any other food. Two meta-analyses found a small effect on body fat, and one called its clinical relevance uncertain. We found no human trial of ghee's CLA.
- Whigham and colleagues, 2007. A meta-analysis in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition pooled 18 randomised, double-blind, placebo-controlled trials in which CLA was given as a supplement. At the median dose of 3.2 g a day, the CLA groups lost 0.09 kg of fat a week more than placebo. Most trials used mixtures of purified isomers; results comparing isomers were inconclusive.
- Onakpoya and colleagues, 2012. A systematic review in the European Journal of Nutrition included seven trials lasting at least six months, four of them with serious flaws in reporting their methods. CLA beat placebo by 0.70 kg of weight and 1.33 kg of fat. The authors wrote that the effects were small, their clinical relevance uncertain, and that the trials do not convincingly show any clinically relevant long-term effect on body composition. Reported side effects included constipation, diarrhoea and soft stools.
Put next to ghee, the gap is plain. At the highest ghee figure above, 20.07 mg per gram, reaching 3.2 g (3,200 mg) of CLA would take about 159 g of ghee fat (3,200 ÷ 20.07); at 6.93 mg per gram it would take about 462 g. On these numbers, eating ghee for its CLA makes no sense; what else that much fat brings is covered in our article on whether ghee is saturated fat.
What did the CLA-enriched ghee study in rats find?
It found changes in blood fats and antioxidant enzymes in rats: a reason for more research, not for eating ghee. The 2013 study fed 24 female Wistar rats, from 21 days old, a diet with soybean oil, low-CLA ghee or high-CLA ghee, for 35 days in one part of the study and 16 weeks in another.
The ghee was buffalo ghee made by the creamery method, at 12.18 and 19.54 mg of CLA per gram of fat, with the difference coming from the buffaloes' feed. Rats on the high-CLA ghee had higher activity of some antioxidant enzymes, and lower plasma cholesterol and triglycerides than rats on soybean oil. The authors suggest high-CLA ghee could help lower cardiovascular risk. A rat study cannot show that for people, and this one had no human arm. Another ghee fat with its own claims is covered in our article on butyric acid in ghee.
How should you read CLA claims on ghee labels?
Sceptically. A CLA claim tells you little without a measured figure, its unit and how the sample was made. Even then it describes one batch from animals on one diet, and no human trial links ghee's CLA to any health outcome.
- Ask for the number and its unit. Milligrams per gram of fat is how the Karnal studies report it; "high in CLA" with no figure means nothing.
- Ask what the animals ate. Green fodder raised the ghee figure by about 50 per cent to more than double in the Karnal studies, so the season and the feed matter.
- Ask whether the figure is the seller's own ghee or a borrowed number from a study.
- Treat any weight-loss or heart claim built on CLA as unsupported. The human trials used gram doses of purified supplements.
Himdhara's ghee comes from Badri cattle that graze freely in the Uttarakhand hills, and every batch's laboratory report is published before it ships.
The short version
Ghee contains CLA, and Indian studies measured roughly 6 to 20 mg per gram of fat. Green fodder raised that figure, and in one study an indigenous method gave more than the creamery method. The human trials used purified supplements at about 3.2 g a day and found only a small effect on body fat. The ghee studies were in rats. If you eat ghee, eat it for its flavour, in amounts your doctor would approve, not for its CLA.
Sources
Further reading behind the figures above. Himdhara's own numbers — yields, batch results — come from our production records and the batch reports on the lab reports page.
- Tyagi A, Kewalramani N, Kaur H, Singhal KK (2008). Effect of green fodder feeding on conjugated linoleic acid in milk and ghee (clarified butter oil) of cows and buffaloes. Pakistan Journal of Agricultural Sciences.
- Tyagi AK, Kewalramani N, Dhiman TR, Kaur H, Singhal KK, Kanwajia SK (2006). Enhancement of the conjugated linoleic acid content of buffalo milk and milk products through green fodder feeding. Animal Feed Science and Technology.
- Chinnadurai K, Kanwal HK, Tyagi AK, Stanton C, Ross P (2013). High conjugated linoleic acid enriched ghee (clarified butter) increases the antioxidant and antiatherogenic potency in female Wistar rats. Lipids in Health and Disease.
- Whigham LD, Watras AC, Schoeller DA (2007). Efficacy of conjugated linoleic acid for reducing fat mass: a meta-analysis in humans. American Journal of Clinical Nutrition.
- Onakpoya IJ, Posadzki PP, Watson LK, Davies LA, Ernst E (2012). The efficacy of long-term conjugated linoleic acid (CLA) supplementation on body composition in overweight and obese individuals: a systematic review and meta-analysis of randomized clinical trials. European Journal of Nutrition.