Melatonine CAS-no-73-31-4_News

Product description and properties:
Melatonin is a slightly off-white, odourless crystalline powder. It is very slightly soluble in water and in dilute hydrochloric acid.
Melatonin is a small molecule, a derivative of the amino acid tryptophan, N-acetyl-5 methoxytryptamine. It is a potent hormone with well-recognized activities and the potential to influence many bodily functions. It is produced by the pineal gland in the brain and is secreted when the body recognizes darkness. 
Melatonin has intense effects on the timing of the sleep/awake cycle, regulating the circadian rhythms of several biological functions. This is its most studied biological activity. 
Melatonin, as a multifunctional hormone, appears to regulate or modulate other functions in humans through the activation of its receptors and works as a strong antioxidant that protects the DNA. Melatonin’s antioxidant activity may reduce Parkinson’s disease development, prevent cardiac arrhythmia, and, in animals, promote longevity.

History: 
Melatonin, chemically known as N-acetyl-5-methoxytryptamine, has a history of scientific exploration, evolving from a biological enigma to precise molecular identification. 
As early as the beginning of the 20th century, scientists observed that pineal gland extracts had a bleaching effect on pigmentation in amphibian skin, but the identity of the active substance remained undetermined.
It wasn't until 1958 that American dermatologist Aaron Bunsen Lerner and his colleagues at Yale University, through painstaking isolation and purification of bovine pineal gland extracts, finally successfully isolated and identified this active compound. 
Lerner's team, including James D. Case, Yoshiyata Takahashi, and Teh H. Lee, extracted trace amounts of the active substance from over 250,000 bovine pineal glands, determined its chemical structure, and named it "Melatonin," after its bleaching effect on melanocytes. 
This discovery not only solved a long-standing mystery about the function of the pineal gland but also laid the foundation for subsequent research.

Applications:
1. Melatonin can be used as medicine health care products, so as to enhance people’s immune function, preventing aging and back to youth. What’s more, it is also a kind of natural “sleeping pill”.
2. Melatonin is a kind of hormone secreted by pineal body of pituitary gland in the body. The amount of melatonin has something to do with light. The weaker the light is, the more the melatonin is, whereas the less. In addition, it is helpful to one’s sleep.
3. Biochemical research. Melatonin has complex effects on apoptotic pathways, inhibiting apoptosis in immune cells and neurons but enhancing apoptotic cell death of cancer cells. Inhibits proliferation/metastasis of breast cancer cells by inhibiting estrogen receptor action.
Melatonin is most effective in young individuals and appears to be less effective in elderly individuals (possibly because of a decreased number of receptors).  
Melatonin is sold as a food supplement in the United States, but it has become popular for use as a hypnotic and for alleviating jet lag (a flight across five or more time zones) and helping to resynchronize individuals who have difficulty adapting to night-shift work. have effects on circadian rhythm and sleep processes.

Biological Activity:
Melatonin is a naturally compound found in animals, plants, and microbes. It is a hormone secreted by the pineal gland. Melatonin can directly neutralize a number of ROS, stimulate several antioxidant enzymes, reduce UV-induced erythema, modulate the expression of apoptosis and alleviate sleep disturbances. 
The mechanism of biological effects is via activation of melatonin receptors or protection of nuclear and mitochondrial DNA.
In the skin, melatonin scavenges and inactivates free radicals arising from UV irradiation. Melatonin represents a substance which protects cells from UVA and UVB action in vitro and in vivo experiments. Preincubation with melatonin can lead to the normalization of the decreased UV-induced mitochondrial membrane potential. 
Such effects are followed by suppression of the activation of mitochondrial pathway-related initiator caspase 9 (casp-9), but not of death receptor-dependent casp-8. Melatonin also down-regulates casp-3/casp-7 and reduces PARP activation (Fischer et al,. 2008).
                          Product manager: Joy Wu                                                                          Email address: Joy@coreychem.com