Drug & supplement interaction

Ellagic Acid + Nivolumab

Nivolumab brand name: Opdivo.

No Known Interaction
Medically reviewed by · Updated July 2026 · Pair last verified Sep 13, 2026
The bottom line No known interaction

We found no known interaction between Ellagic Acid and Nivolumab in our sources. Absence of a documented interaction is not the same as proven safety, and does not guarantee one does not exist. Do not start, stop, or change a medication or supplement based on this page; confirm with your pharmacist or doctor first. Additionally, although there is no interaction, the label for Nivolumab states a food rule worth keeping to, and the two are separately associated with some of the same side effects, which would make a new symptom harder to attribute to one or the other.

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Interaction report

Ellagic Acid and Nivolumab

We checked these two against our interaction database. Here is what we found.

No Known Interaction Found

We did not find a documented interaction between Nivolumab and Ellagic Acid in our sources. This does not guarantee that the combination is completely free of risk — there is often limited research on supplements and herbal products, especially around drug interactions.

If you decide to take both, the practical routine is simple: add one new thing at a time and note the date you started it. If the combination is going to disagree with you, it usually shows in the first days to a couple of weeks — and a start date turns “I’ve been feeling off” into something a pharmacist can actually work with. Do not stop a prescribed medicine on your own.

Always talk with your pharmacist or doctor before making changes to your medications or supplements, particularly if you take several medications or have an ongoing health condition.

Ellagic Acid safety at a glance

Ellagic Acid overall Use caution Generally considered safe in foods, but concentrated supplements are not well studied in humans.
Pregnancy Avoid Not enough safety data on supplement doses; food amounts are fine but avoid concentrated supplements.
Breastfeeding Avoid There is not enough safety information, so concentrated supplements are best avoided.

Safety guidance is general; always confirm with your pharmacist or doctor for your situation.

Still wondering about combining Nivolumab and Ellagic Acid? Ask Dr. Brian Staiger, PharmD, BCPS directly ›
How we checked

Why No Interaction Is Listed for Nivolumab

Interactions in our licensed database are recorded against drug classes, not just single drug names. Nivolumab is filed under a single classification — antineoplastics. Ellagic Acid has documented interactions with 1 drug class — the most serious being antidiabetes drugs (moderate) — and none of Nivolumab’s classifications are among them.

Classification data comes from our licensed Natural Medicines dataset. A medication can belong to classes beyond those recorded there, so this describes how the check was run — it is not a safety guarantee.

Keep it in perspective

Ellagic Acid Does Interact With Other Medications

Ellagic Acid has 86 moderate known drug interactions in our database — Nivolumab isn’t one of them. If you take anything else, check it against the full list below.

Moderate 86 No known interaction 2,744 (incl. Nivolumab)
Taking anything else?

Check Another of Your Medications Against Ellagic Acid

Covers the 2,830 medications we’ve checked against Ellagic Acid. Pick one to open its full report.

What to actually watch for

No Interaction Found — But Data Suggests Ellagic Acid and Nivolumab May Share Several of the Same Side Effects

This is not an interaction. Neither one changes how your body handles the other, and nothing here says they react together. What our sources do show is that each has separately been linked to the effects below — so taking both can make those effects more likely to turn up, and harder to pin on one or the other if they do.

  • Diarrhea / Nausea reported in 5.4% of FDA reports for Nivolumab Additional detail

    Ellagic Acid

    “Orally, a combination of ellagic acid and graviola was associated with nausea and diarrhea in 2 out of 30 patients in one clinical trial, leading to discontinuation. It is unclear if these effects are due to ellagic acid, graviola, or the combination.”

    Ellagic Acid · Natural Medicines adverse-effect record, reported in diarrhea.

    1 source cited
    1. 96297. Le Donne M, Lentini M, Alibrandi A, et al. Antiviral activity of Ellagic acid and Annona Muricata in cervical HPV related pre-neoplastic lesions: A randomized trial. J Funct Food 2017;35:549-54. DOI

    Nivolumab

    Listed in the ADVERSE REACTIONS section of the FDA label for Nivolumab, and in voluntary FDA adverse-event reports. Read the label on DailyMed ›

Effects for Nivolumab come from the ADVERSE REACTIONS section of its FDA label; effects for Ellagic Acid come from the Natural Medicines adverse-effect record, quoted above. Where a percentage is shown, it is the share of 96,645 voluntary FDA FAERS reports for Nivolumab that mention that effect — a reporting proportion, not an incidence rate and not evidence the drug caused it. Wording is matched across sources by our own clinical vocabulary, so treat this as a prompt to pay attention, not a diagnosis.

How to take them

Some Nivolumab Products Have a Food Rule — Ellagic Acid Should Not Break It

At least one FDA label for a product containing Nivolumab says to take it on an empty stomach. Most supplements — Ellagic Acid included — are taken with a meal, so the easy mistake is swallowing both together at breakfast. Where that rule applies, keep Nivolumab on its own and move Ellagic Acid to a meal later in the day.

This may not be true of your version. Food instructions belong to the product, not the ingredient: two Nivolumab products can carry different directions, and extended-release forms often differ from immediate-release ones. The label we read is quoted below — check the directions on your own box or bottle, or ask your pharmacist, for how to take the exact product you were given.

Table 2: Recommended Dosages of Intravenous OPDIVO in Combination with Other Therapeutic Agents Indication Recommended OPDIVO Dosage Duration of Therapy Unresectable or metastatic melanoma 1 mg/kg every 3 weeks with ipilimumab 3 mg/kg In combination with ipilimumab for a maximum of 4 doses or until unacceptable toxicity, whichever occurs earlier Adult patients and pediatric patients aged 12 years

From the Dosage and Administration section of the FDA label we read for Nivolumab — where that label names a specific product, the instruction is that product's. Read the label on DailyMed ›

A food rule is not an interaction — it is about how much of the medicine you absorb. The directions that came with your own product, and your pharmacist, outrank anything on this page.

Overlapping uses

What Nivolumab Is Prescribed For, and What Ellagic Acid Has Been Studied For

These two come up together because they touch the same health topic — not because they do the same job. Nivolumab is a prescription medicine with approved uses on its FDA label. Ellagic Acid is a supplement: what follows is what researchers have looked at it for, and how strong that evidence is.

Nivolumab is prescribed for: Opdivo (nivolumab) is used to treat many types of cancer in adults, and some in patients 12 years and older. It can be used alone or in combination with other therapies depending on the cancer type and stage. Cancers it treats include melanoma (including after surgery to reduce the chance of the cancer coming back), non-small cell lung cancer, malignant pleural mesothelioma, advanced renal cell carcinoma (kidney cancer), classical Hodgkin lymphoma, squamous cell carcinoma of the head and neck, urothelial carcinoma (bladder cancer), colorectal cancer with specific genetic features (MSI-H or dMMR), hepatocellular carcinoma (liver cancer), esophageal cancer, gastroesophageal junction cancer, and gastric (stomach) cancer. Some uses require the tumor to test positive for a protein called PD-L1, and some are specific to certain stages of disease or prior treatments received.

Read the rest of what Nivolumab is prescribed for

Your oncologist will determine which use applies to your situation.

Ellagic Acid has been studied for:

  • Bladder cancer studied, not established Ellagic Acid has been studied for this. Natural Medicines rates the evidence: Insufficient Reliable Evidence To Rate Read what the research shows

    Ellagic Acid for bladder cancer

    Low-quality, observational research in adults with intermediate- to high-risk non-muscular invasive bladder cancer has found that taking ellagic acid 100 mg and graviola 100 mg daily for 6 months following an induction cycle is associated with 83% higher recurrence-free survival when compared with no intervention.

    1 source cited
    1. 106054. Serretta V, Berardinis E, Simonato A, et al. A prospective observational study on oral administration of Ellagic Acid and Annona Muricata in patients affected by non-muscle invasive bladder cancer not undergoing maintenance after 6-week intravesical proph

Effectiveness ratings and the research summaries above are the verbatim record from the Natural Medicines database, which grades evidence from “Effective” down to “Insufficient Reliable Evidence To Rate”. A rating below the top of that scale means researchers have looked at it — not that it works, and never that it can stand in for a prescribed medicine. Do not stop or replace Nivolumab on your own; if you are taking Ellagic Acid for the same health topic, tell your prescriber, especially if the medicine is being adjusted to a target.

Everything else you take

See Every Supplement That Interacts With Nivolumab

This page covers Ellagic Acid only. If you take other supplements — a multivitamin, a sleep aid, something for joints — the Nivolumab page lists 1 supplement it has a documented interaction with, worst first, each one explained.

The most serious there right now: American Pawpaw (minor).

By severity: 1 minor.

From our pharmacist’s overview on the Nivolumab page

“Nivolumab (Opdivo) is an immunotherapy infusion that trains the body's own immune system to recognize and attack cancer cells, the kind of drug you might expect to carry a long list of supplement warnings. It does not.”

Reviewed by 2 · Jul 18, 2026

Open the Nivolumab interaction page

One more smart check

Taking Ellagic Acid as Part of a Dietary Supplement Product? Check It for Interactions

We hold 121 real supplement products containing Ellagic Acid, each one broken down to its full ingredient list — and combination products often carry several ingredients besides Ellagic Acid. Even though Ellagic Acid itself has no known interaction with Nivolumab, another ingredient on your label might. Find your product and we’ll check every ingredient on its label:

How much people look this up

Where Ellagic Acid and Nivolumab Sit Against Everything Else

Out of every supplement and medication people look up on HelloPharmacist, here is where these two land this week — and which way each has been moving.

Supplement Ellagic Acid
Steady interest

#955 of 1,452 supplements looked up here in the last 7 days

29 days ago today
Medication Nivolumab
Steady interest

#2,054 of 2,830 medications looked up here in the last 7 days

29 days ago today

Position among everything looked up on this site, not a measure of how commonly either one is used or how important it is. A supplement can climb this list because of a news story. It counts every request to the page, automated ones included, and nothing here identifies anyone.

Where does our data come from?
  • Source: the Natural Medicines (TRC Healthcare) clinical database — the evidence-graded professional reference for herb & supplement interactions.
  • Citation library: 103,510 references behind our interaction content, 65,311 of them resolved to verified PubMed/DOI sources. See every Ellagic Acid reference on this page ↓
  • Freshness: we automatically re-check this combination every week — this pair was last verified September 13, 2026. The Ellagic Acid and Nivolumab records this page draws on were last updated July 10, 2026.
  • What “no known interaction” means: no documented interaction in the sources above — not a guarantee of safety. Supplements are studied far less than prescription drugs, so we say exactly what the evidence supports, and nothing more.
Data structure & sourcing designed and verified by .
Supplement

About Ellagic Acid

What is Ellagic Acid?

  • Antioxidant support
  • General anti-aging or 'cleanse' products
  • Cancer prevention interest
  • Skin and beauty products
  • Heart and metabolic health

Ellagic acid is a natural plant compound (a polyphenol) found in foods like pomegranates, raspberries, strawberries, and walnuts. It is studied mostly in laboratory and animal research for antioxidant and possible anti-cancer effects, but strong human evidence is lacking. Eating ellagic-acid-rich foods is healthy, but supplements are not proven to treat any disease, so check with a pharmacist or doctor before using them.

Naturally found in the fruit, seeds, and skins of many plants · Capsules, tablets, powders, and as part of fruit extracts (such as pomegranate or red raspberry seed extract)

An interaction check asks whether these two react with each other — it does not ask whether Ellagic Acid is a good idea for someone in your situation. Here is what our Ellagic Acid record says about it on its own.

Ellagic Acid: dosing

There is no well-established standard dose of ellagic acid as a supplement. Research studies have used different amounts and different forms, so it is hard to recommend a specific milligram amount.If you choose to use a product, follow the directions on the label and do not exceed the recommended dose.

From our Ellagic Acid monograph — the full record covers uses, side effects and every documented interaction.

Read the full Ellagic Acid monograph & all interactions
Medication

About Nivolumab Injection

What Is Nivolumab Injection Used For?

Brand name: Opdivo

Opdivo (nivolumab) is used to treat many types of cancer in adults, and some in patients 12 years and older. It can be used alone or in combination with other therapies depending on the cancer type and stage. Cancers it treats include melanoma (including after surgery to reduce the chance of the cancer coming back), non-small cell lung cancer, malignant pleural mesothelioma, advanced renal cell carcinoma (kidney cancer), classical Hodgkin lymphoma, squamous cell carcinoma of the head and neck, urothelial carcinoma (bladder cancer), colorectal cancer with specific genetic features (MSI-H or dMMR), hepatocellular carcinoma (liver cancer), esophageal cancer, gastroesophageal junction cancer, and gastric (stomach) cancer.

Some uses require the tumor to test positive for a protein called PD-L1, and some are specific to certain stages of disease or prior treatments received. Your oncologist will determine which use applies to your situation.

Most-Reported Side Effects for Nivolumab

From FAERS, the FDA’s public side-effect reporting system (96,645 reports, all brands). Reports are voluntary and are not proof the drug caused the effect.

Malignant neoplasm progression 9,878 reports
Diarrhea 5,251 reports
Fatigue 4,195 reports
Fever 3,721 reports
Nausea 3,182 reports
See full Nivolumab Injection drug information
Keep checking

Other Drugs & Ellagic Acid

Browse every other medication we’ve checked against Ellagic Acid — both the ones with a known interaction and the ones without. Select any drug for the full detail.

0Major
86Moderate
0Minor
2,743No known interaction
86 Moderate 2,743 No interaction
Moderate

86 interactions

Showing 60 of 86 moderate interactions — see all 86 on the Ellagic Acid page.

No interaction 2,743 drugs checked — show the list

We also checked Ellagic Acid against these medications and found no known interaction in our sources. Open any page to confirm.

Showing the 60 most looked-up of 2,743 medications checked with no known interaction — see the full Ellagic Acid list.

See the full Ellagic Acid interactions page
See every supplement checked against Nivolumab, ranked by severity
Evidence & sources

Ellagic Acid References

The 9 references that drive our Ellagic Acid monograph and interaction data, from the evidence-graded Natural Medicines (TRC Healthcare) database. Citations with a link open the study on PubMed or the publisher’s site.

  1. Ertam I, Mutlu B, Unal I, Alper S, Kivçak B, Ozer O. Efficiency of ellagic acid and arbutin in melasma: a randomized, prospective, open-label study. J Dermatol. 2008;35(9):570-4. PubMed
  2. Dahl A, Yatskayer M, Raab S, Oresajo C. Tolerance and efficacy of a product containing ellagic and salicylic acids in reducing hyperpigmentation and dark spots in comparison with 4% hydroquinone. J Drugs Dermatol. 2013;12(1):52-8.
  3. Falsaperla M, Morgia G, Tartarone A, Ardito R, Romano G. Support ellagic acid therapy in patients with hormone refractory prostate cancer (HRPC) on standard chemotherapy using vinorelbine and estramustine phosphate. Eur Urol. 2005;47(4):449-54 PubMed
  4. Le Donne M, Lentini M, Alibrandi A, et al. Antiviral activity of Ellagic acid and Annona Muricata in cervical HPV related pre-neoplastic lesions: A randomized trial. J Funct Food 2017;35:549-54. DOI
  5. Liu Y, Yu S, Wang F, et al. Chronic administration of ellagic acid improved the cognition in middle-aged overweight men. Appl Physiol Nutr Metab. 2018;43(3):266-73. PubMed
  6. Serretta V, Berardinis E, Simonato A, et al. A prospective observational study on oral administration of Ellagic Acid and Annona Muricata in patients affected by non-muscle invasive bladder cancer not undergoing maintenance after 6-week intravesical proph
  7. Ghadimi M, Foroughi F, Hashemipour S, et al. Randomized double-blind clinical trial examining the Ellagic acid effects on glycemic status, insulin resistance, antioxidant, and inflammatory factors in patients with type 2 diabetes. Phytother Res 2021;35(2) PubMed
  8. Kazemi M, Lalooha F, Nooshabadi MR, Dashti F, Kavianpour M, Haghighian HK. Randomized double blind clinical trial evaluating the Ellagic acid effects on insulin resistance, oxidative stress and sex hormones levels in women with polycystic ovarian syndrome PubMed
  9. Ghadimi M, Foroughi F, Hashemipour S, et al. Decreased insulin resistance in diabetic patients by influencing Sirtuin1 and Fetuin-A following supplementation with ellagic acid: a randomized controlled trial. Diabetol Metab Syndr 2021;13(1):16. PubMed

Medication overviews come from MedlinePlus (NIH); supplement label data from the NIH Dietary Supplement Label Database. Content is written and reviewed by licensed HelloPharmacist pharmacists — see our data sources and editorial standards.

Pharmacist Counseling Corner

Taking Ellagic Acid and Nivolumab Together: Common Questions

Is it safe to take Ellagic Acid with Nivolumab?
We do not list a known interaction between Ellagic Acid and Nivolumab. That does not guarantee the combination is risk-free, so confirm with your pharmacist or doctor — especially if you take other medications or have a health condition.
Do Ellagic Acid and Nivolumab have any of the same side effects?
Yes — our sources link each of them separately to 2 of the same effects. That is not an interaction: neither changes how your body handles the other. It does mean that if one of those effects turns up, it can be harder to tell which one is behind it. They are listed on this page with the source behind each.
Should I take Ellagic Acid and Nivolumab at the same time of day?
At least one FDA label for a product containing Nivolumab says to take it on an empty stomach, and supplements are usually taken with a meal — so taking them together at breakfast is the easy mistake. Where that applies, keep Nivolumab on its own and move Ellagic Acid to a meal later in the day. Food instructions belong to the product rather than the ingredient, so check the directions on your own box. This is about absorption, not an interaction.
Are Ellagic Acid and Nivolumab used for the same thing?
They overlap in purpose, which usually means the real question is whether you need both rather than whether they are safe together. This page lists the shared uses and how strong the evidence is for Ellagic Acid in each. That is a conversation for your prescriber, especially if Nivolumab is being adjusted to a target.
How was the Ellagic Acid and Nivolumab combination checked?
Interactions in our licensed database are recorded against drug classes. Nivolumab is filed under 1 classification, and Ellagic Acid has documented interactions with 1 drug class — none of Nivolumab's classifications are among them. A medication can belong to classes beyond those recorded in our dataset, so this describes how the check was run rather than guaranteeing safety.
Does Ellagic Acid interact with any other medications?
Yes. Ellagic Acid has 86 documented drug interactions in our database — Nivolumab is simply not one of them. If you take anything else, it is worth checking each one; they are all listed on this page.
Does Nivolumab interact with any supplements?
Yes. Nivolumab has documented interactions with 1 supplement in our database — Ellagic Acid is not one of them. The Nivolumab interaction page linked on this page lists every one, ranked by severity.

Written and reviewed by the HelloPharmacist editorial staff. Our editorial policy

Where next

Keep Exploring

Ellagic Acid monograph Uses, safety profile, and every drug interaction in one place Nivolumab Injection drug information The full plain-English guide to this medication Nivolumab supplement interactions Every supplement checked against Nivolumab, ranked by severity Supplement interaction checker Check any supplement or product against your medications Browse medications A–Z Every drug we’ve checked against herbs & supplements References The 9 citations behind this page Ask a pharmacist Free, personal answer from our licensed team

Still Have a Question About Nivolumab and Ellagic Acid?

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This information is for education only and is not a substitute for professional medical advice. Always check with your pharmacist or doctor before starting, stopping, or combining supplements and medications.