Joung, Jin-Yong, Lee, Jin-Seok, Cho, Jung-Hyo et al. · Frontiers in pharmacology · 2019 · DOI
Researchers tested a herbal supplement called Myelophil (made from two plant extracts) in 97 people with ME/CFS over 12 weeks. Overall, the supplement didn't significantly reduce fatigue compared to placebo. However, in people with severe fatigue symptoms at the start, Myelophil did show meaningful improvement in fatigue levels and quality of life. The treatment was safe with no serious side effects reported.
This is one of few rigorous clinical trials testing a herbal approach for ME/CFS in a randomized controlled format. The finding that Myelophil may benefit people with severe symptoms could guide future research into patient stratification and personalized treatment approaches. Results support further investigation with adequately powered phase 3 trials.
This study does not prove Myelophil is an effective treatment for all ME/CFS patients—it failed to show benefit in the overall population. The positive subgroup findings (severe symptoms only) are exploratory and require pre-specified confirmation in future trials to avoid false positives from post-hoc analysis. The lack of biomarker changes does not clarify the mechanism by which symptom improvements occurred.
About the PEM badge: “PEM required” means post-exertional malaise was an explicit required diagnostic criterion for participant inclusion in this study — not that PEM was studied, observed, or discussed. Studies using criteria that do not require PEM (e.g. Fukuda, Oxford) are tagged “PEM not required”. How the atlas works →
The first block is for the primary paper and is the citation you should use in research work. The atlas-snapshot line only applies if you are specifically referring to this atlas’s reading of the paper on the date shown.
Primary citation
Joung, Jin-Yong, Lee, Jin-Seok, Cho, Jung-Hyo, Lee, Dong-Soo, Ahn, Yo-Chan, & Son, Chang-Gue (2019). The Efficacy and Safety of Myelophil, an Ethanol Extract Mixture of Astragali Radix and Salviae Radix, for Chronic Fatigue Syndrome: A Randomized Clinical Trial.. Frontiers in pharmacology. https://doi.org/10.3389/fphar.2019.00991
BibTeX
@article{mecfsatlas-joung-2019-efficacy-safety,
author = {Joung, Jin-Yong and Lee, Jin-Seok and Cho, Jung-Hyo and Lee, Dong-Soo and Ahn, Yo-Chan and Son, Chang-Gue},
title = {The Efficacy and Safety of Myelophil, an Ethanol Extract Mixture of Astragali Radix and Salviae Radix, for Chronic Fatigue Syndrome: A Randomized Clinical Trial.},
journal = {Frontiers in pharmacology},
year = {2019},
doi = {10.3389/fphar.2019.00991},
note = {PubMed: 31551788},
url = {https://www.mecfsatlas.com/evidence/joung-2019-efficacy-safety},
}Atlas snapshot reference
ME/CFS Atlas. Generator v1 / Scanner v1.4 / policy v0.1. Accessed 2026-05-26. https://www.mecfsatlas.com/evidence/joung-2019-efficacy-safety
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