Zeaxanthin
Of 1,487 on-market zeaxanthin products in the January 2026 DSLD dump, the median declared dose is 1 mg, and 73.4% list unspecified/undisclosed form as the primary form.
Form share
Of 1,447 products with an identifiable primary form, here is the share held by each form of Zeaxanthin on the market today.
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| Form | Quality tier | n | Share |
|---|---|---|---|
| unspecified/undisclosed form | Unrated | 1,062 | 73.4% |
| Zeaxanthin isomers (mixed isomer blend) | Unrated | 275 | 19.0% |
| Trans-Zeaxanthin (dietary isomer) | Unrated | 75 | 5.2% |
| Meso-Zeaxanthin | Tier 2 | 35 | 2.4% |
Form share over time
Entry-year breakdown of the top forms, 2012–2025.
Dose distribution
Deciles of declared dose per serving (mg), among 1,311 products with a disclosed amount.
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- 23.6% of products fall below the fairy-dust threshold (0.4 mg, 20% of the studied low dose).
- 11.4% of products don't disclose an amount because Zeaxanthin is declared inside a proprietary blend.
Where does your dose rank?
Enter a per-serving dose (mg) to see exactly how it compares to the 1,311 on-market zeaxanthin products with a disclosed amount. The chart above groups doses into deciles; this looks up the exact percentile for one number.
By dosage form
By target group
Top brands
Search interest over time
How often people search for zeaxanthin on Google, US only, the last 5 years. This is public interest, not DSLD label data — a spike here doesn't necessarily line up with anything on this page, and Google's own index (100 = that term's peak popularity in the chosen window) is relative, not an absolute search-volume count.
Or see this search directly on trends.google.com.
Forms explained
Label discloses only "Zeaxanthin" with no isomer. The largest RCT (AREDS2) dosed 2 mg zeaxanthin together with 10 mg lutein, so zeaxanthin-alone evidence at a defined isomer is not available to rank.
Source: AREDS2 Research Group 2013, JAMA 309(19):2005-2015, PMID 23644932
The isomer naturally present in diet and macular pigment; it was a co-component (2 mg) in every verified trial and never tested alone at a defined dose, so it is not ranked.
Source: Sabour-Pickett S et al. 2014, Retina 34(9):1757-1766, PMID 24887490
Human RCT evidence at supplemental doses: in 52 early-AMD patients, formulations containing 10 or 17 mg/day meso-zeaxanthin (with lutein and zeaxanthin) raised macular pigment optical density across more eccentricities than lutein 20 mg + zeaxanthin 2 mg, and the 17 mg arm improved contrast sensitivity most; a separate RCT (n=44) showed serum and central MPOD increases. Evidence is from small trials by one research group with no disease-progression endpoint, hence tier 2 rather than 1.
Source: Sabour-Pickett S et al. 2014, Retina 34(9):1757-1766, PMID 24887490; Connolly EE et al. 2011, Invest Ophthalmol Vis Sci 52(12):9207-9217, PMID 21979997
Label states only "isomers" with no declared isomer ratio, so the meso-zeaxanthin content (the part with trial evidence) is unknown; not ranked.
Reference values
- RDA (adult): not established — Macular carotenoid, not an essential nutrient; no DRI exists.
- Tolerable Upper Intake Level (adult): not established — Not established -- no IOM/NASEM UL exists. AREDS2 (lutein 10 mg + zeaxanthin 2 mg daily, median 5-year follow-up, n=4,203, PMID 23644932) is the reference exposure; see the lutein entry for its safety summary.
- Studied clinical dose range: 2–19 mg
- AREDS2 Research Group 2013, JAMA 309(19):2005-2015, PMID 23644932 -- n=4,203, lutein 10 mg + zeaxanthin 2 mg daily; adding lutein+zeaxanthin did not further reduce progression to advanced AMD in the primary analysis (HR 0.90, 98.7% CI 0.76-1.07) but was judged an appropriate carotenoid substitute for beta-carotene. Sabour-Pickett S et al. 2014, Retina 34(9):1757-1766, PMID 24887490 -- 52 early-AMD patients x12 months: lutein 20 mg + zeaxanthin 2 mg (n=17), meso-zeaxanthin 10 mg + lutein 10 mg + zeaxanthin 2 mg (n=21), or meso-zeaxanthin 17 mg + lutein 3 mg + zeaxanthin 2 mg (n=14); macular pigment optical density rose across more eccentricities with the meso-zeaxanthin-containing formulations, and contrast sensitivity improved most in the 17 mg MZ group. Connolly EE et al. 2011, Invest Ophthalmol Vis Sci 52(12):9207-9217, PMID 21979997 -- RCT, n=44 healthy adults, daily tablet of MZ 10.6 mg + L 5.9 mg + Z 1.2 mg x6 months; serum L/Z and central MPOD rose vs placebo, no adverse clinical-pathology findings. Range reflects total zeaxanthin isomers (2 mg Z up to 2 mg Z + 17 mg MZ); zeaxanthin was never tested alone at a verified dose, always alongside lutein.
- Note: Alias design for lutein/zeaxanthin: lutein (existing) and zeaxanthin are separate compounds, and most labels declare them as separate rows ("Lutein", "Zeaxanthin", "Zeaxanthin Isomers", "Meso-Zeaxanthin", "Trans-Zeaxanthin"). Combined rows ("Lutein/Zeaxanthin", "Lutein and Zeaxanthin", ~25 on-market rows) are deliberately NOT aliased here; they declare a two-carotenoid total, and a dry run showed they stay unmatched under both the old and the merged reference (alias-length fuzzy cap). If the team wants them counted, add them to lutein's aliases (accepting that the total then overstates lutein by the zeaxanthin share) -- not done here because compounds.yaml was out of scope. Existing lutein alias "Lutemax 2020" also absorbs rows whose raw_form says "Zeaxanthin" (e.g. Lutemax 2020 rows with raw_form Zeaxanthin, ~14 rows). Where a label lists "Zeaxanthin" plus a nested "Meso-Zeaxanthin" sub-row, the two amounts may overlap; metrics should not sum them blindly. Rows in mcg are normalized to mg.