Epithalamin
The pineal extract behind epitalon, studied in Russia and Ukraine for fifty years, with a literature that is almost entirely one group's
Epithalamin is a mixture of small proteins and peptides extracted from cattle pineal glands, first tested in the Soviet Union in the 1970s and studied since then by the group that became the Saint Petersburg Institute of Bioregulation and Gerontology. In flies, mice and rats it lengthened average lifespan; in elderly people it is reported to restore night-time melatonin and, in two long follow-ups, to lower deaths. Those human studies are small, partly uncontrolled, published mostly in Russian, and have not been repeated by anyone outside the group. It is not the same thing as epitalon, the four-amino-acid peptide later designed from it.
No established human dose Details ↓
Recommended Dosing
No established human dose
Epithalamin has been given to people in Russian and Ukrainian studies, as repeated injection courses in elderly volunteers, coronary patients, people with type 2 diabetes and others, but none of the abstracts read states how much was given, and none is a dose-finding trial. No regulator has approved a dose.
What is it?
Epithalamin is what is left when cattle pineal glands are extracted and the small proteins and peptides are kept. It is a mixture, so it has no sequence or formula of its own. Soviet researchers, among them Vladimir Khavinson, Vyacheslav Morozov and Vladimir Anisimov, began testing it in the 1970s, and it became the founding product of what the group calls peptide bioregulators: tissue extracts, and later short synthetic peptides, that they propose restore the function of the organ they come from. Epitalon, the tetrapeptide Ala-Glu-Asp-Gly sold widely today, was designed from epithalamin's amino-acid make-up; a 2026 review treats the two as chemically distinct and keeps their evidence apart, as this page does. Epitalon has its own entry on this site, linked under Related Peptides.
Most of what is known comes from animals. Given to rats it raised the night-time production of melatonin in the pineal gland, more reliably in young animals than old ones. Added to their food, it lengthened the average life of female fruit flies, and in a 1998 paper courses of it lengthened average lifespan by 11 to 31% in fruit flies, two mouse strains and a rat strain, with no change in mortality rate in one of the mouse strains. The group links these results to lower free-radical damage in tissues, which they measured in flies and rats.
The human studies are the reason the extract still circulates. Elderly people given courses of it showed a rise in night-time melatonin when their own levels had been low, and closer timing between melatonin and a thymus hormone. In a study of 266 older people followed for six to eight years, the authors report mortality 1.6 to 1.8 times lower in the epithalamin group than in controls, and in a 12-year randomised study of elderly coronary patients 28% fewer deaths than in the control group. Smaller reports describe better blood-sugar control in type 2 diabetes, changes in the eye's blood vessels in glaucoma, and better immune measures in breast cancer patients given it with chemotherapy.
Read plainly, this is a long but narrow literature. Nearly every study comes from the Saint Petersburg institute, the Kiev Institute of Gerontology or groups working with them; many are in Russian-language journals with short English abstracts that give no group sizes, no method of randomisation and no statistics; and no team outside that network has published a replication. That does not make the results false, but it means none of them has been tested the way a medicine would be. A 2026 review from US clinicians treated epithalamin's studies as historical context, found no adequately powered randomised trial of epitalon, and found too little information on its dose, absorption and long-term safety.
Epithalamin has no approval from the FDA or EMA. A product sold online under the name could be the extract, epitalon or something else, and the label alone cannot tell you which. Anyone reading the lifespan figures should keep in mind that they come from flies and rodents; the human mortality figures come from small studies by the developers.
Mechanism of Action
Epithalamin is a mixture, so no single molecule or receptor is credited. Its developers explain its effects through the pineal gland's own hormone, melatonin, and through lower oxidative damage; neither has been tied to an identified component of the extract.
Melatonin output
In rats it raised the night-time conversion of serotonin into melatonin, and in elderly people with low pineal output it raised night-time melatonin.
Oxidative damage
In flies and rats it lowered lipid and protein oxidation products and raised antioxidant enzymes such as catalase and superoxide dismutase.
Thymus and immune rhythms
In elderly people the night rise of a thymus hormone moved back into step with melatonin; in old mice and rats it changed immune-cell measures in the thymus and spleen.
Published Research
These are the studies of epithalamin read from their PubMed abstracts on October 29, 2026: ten in people or human cells, ten in animals and two reviews. Almost all come from the Khavinson group in Saint Petersburg and its partners in Kiev and elsewhere. Several human studies give no group sizes or control details in the abstract, so each card says what the abstract does and does not report. Epitalon's studies are on its own entry.
12 years in elderly coronary patients
In a randomised study of elderly people with coronary disease and signs of fast cardiovascular ageing, long-term courses of epithalamine lowered the measured functional age of the heart and vessels and improved exercise tolerance. After 12 years, deaths were 28% fewer than in the control group on the same basic treatment, deaths from heart disease about half, and heart failure and respiratory illness about half as common. The abstract gives no group sizes.
266 older people over six to eight years
Older people received thymalin, epithalamin, both, or neither for the first two to three years and were followed for six to eight. The authors report fewer respiratory infections, less heart disease, hypertension, osteoarthritis and osteoporosis, and mortality 1.6 to 1.8 times lower with epithalamin alone than in controls (2.5 times lower with both peptides). How groups were assigned is not stated.
Night-time melatonin in healthy elderly people
Healthy elderly volunteers had their 24-hour melatonin profile measured before and after a course of epithalamin. Night-time melatonin rose in those whose pineal output was low to begin with and tended to fall in those whose output was normal, which the authors read as a regulating rather than a simply stimulating effect.
Melatonin and a thymus hormone in step
In elderly people, a course of epithalamin raised the night-time level of thymic serum factor at the same time as blood melatonin rose, and moved the melatonin peak to 3 a.m., the timing seen in young people. People who already had a night peak kept it unchanged. The two measures tracked each other more closely after treatment.
Seasonal immune rhythms in coronary disease
Elderly patients with chronic coronary disease showed flattened or reversed seasonal rhythms in T cells, B cells and cortisol compared with young people. After six courses of epithalamin over 30 months, the rhythms of thymic serum factor and cortisol were kept and T-cell counts rose in autumn, alongside a milder clinical course. The abstract describes no untreated comparison group.
Type 2 diabetes: 33 patients
Added to standard treatment in 33 people with type 2 diabetes, epithalamin was followed by steadier blood-sugar control with lower glycated haemoglobin and lower insulin levels, a modest fall in blood pressure and better relaxation of the heart's left ventricle on ultrasound. The abstract does not describe a control group or give figures.
Unstable glaucoma: 28 patients
In 28 patients (42 eyes) whose glaucoma had become unstable although eye pressure was controlled, a course of epithalamine normalised blood levels of adrenaline, noradrenaline and cortisol, widened small arteries of the conjunctiva and optic disc, and reduced congestion and red-cell clumping in the eye's vessels. The abstract gives no comparison group and no effect on vision.
Breast cancer chemotherapy: 105 patients
Women with locally advanced breast cancer received chemotherapy drugs pre-incubated with their own plasma or blood before surgery, and most also received epithalamine. T-cell counts, subsets and function improved, most with the whole-blood method. Because epithalamine was part of a combined regimen, its own contribution cannot be separated in the abstract.
Pituitary sex hormones in 49 people
In 49 men and women, and in rats, epithalamin raised blood FSH, LH and prolactin when they were low and lowered them when they were high, while a single injection left normal levels unchanged. The authors describe this as a two-way, normalising effect of the pineal gland on the pituitary.
One patient with weak cellular immunity
An early clinical report: the pineal polypeptide extract was given to a patient whose cellular immune tests were low, after which lymphocyte responses to phytohaemagglutinin, rosette-forming cells and the skin response to dinitrochlorobenzene improved. It is a single case.
Blood cells from breast cancer patients
Red cells and lymphocytes taken from breast cancer patients and incubated with epithalamin showed higher activity of antioxidant enzymes and more fat-soluble antioxidant vitamins in their membranes. The authors argue from this for wide use in cancer patients' immune recovery, which the experiment, done in a dish, does not test.
Lifespan in flies, mice and rats
Courses of epithalamin lengthened mean lifespan by 11 to 31% in female fruit flies, SHR mice, C3H/Sn mice and LIO rats, and lengthened maximum lifespan in all but the SHR mice. Mortality rate fell by 52% in flies and rats and 27% in C3H/Sn mice but did not change in SHR mice. The authors attribute the effect to raised melatonin and lower free-radical damage.
Fruit flies: females only
Fed to Drosophila larvae, epithalamin lengthened mean lifespan in females by 17% and maximum lifespan by 14%, and halved their rate of ageing by the Gompertz measure, but did nothing for males. Melatonin given the same way did not change lifespan in either sex. Epithalamin lowered lipid peroxidation products in females and raised catalase and, in males, superoxide dismutase.
Melatonin in young and old rats
Old male rats turned less serotonin into melatonin than young ones. Five days of morning injections of epithalamin raised the night peak of serotonin, N-acetylserotonin and melatonin in young rats, but only melatonin in old rats.
Serotonin metabolism in the rat pineal
In young male rats, five days of injections of the extract, made from cattle pineal glands, raised the night-time pineal peak of serotonin, N-acetylserotonin and melatonin without changing other indole products. The authors propose that raising melatonin output underlies its effects.
Rat brain under severe low oxygen
In rats exposed to low air pressure equal to 12,000 metres, both epithalamin and melatonin reduced free-radical damage to lipids and proteins in the cortex and hippocampus; epithalamin protected the hippocampus better than melatonin did.
Brain membrane enzymes under hypoxia
A single injection of epithalamin or of melatonin before acute low-pressure hypoxia prevented the fall in sodium-potassium pump activity and the rise in 5'-nucleotidase activity in the forebrain of young male rats, changes the authors link to protection of neurons.
Pineal signalling in hypoxic rats
Epithalamin raised cyclic GMP in the rat pineal gland, and still did so in rats whose adrenergic receptors had been blocked, so its effect on the gland did not depend on the sympathetic nerves that normally drive it.
Spleen of old rats without a pineal
In old rats whose pineal gland had been removed, epithalamin and epitalon had similar effects on the spleen: both prevented the overgrowth of lymphoid cells in germinal centres that the surgery caused and further reduced blood-cell formation in the spleen.
Tumour spread after laser treatment in mice
In mice carrying B16 melanoma or Lewis carcinoma treated with pulsed laser, thymalin and epithalamin added to the laser's effect in preventing tumour spread and raised antibody-producing cells in the spleen of melanoma-bearing mice.
Hypothalamic sensitivity in old rats
Oestrogen barely restrained compensatory growth of the remaining ovary in old rats, though it did so in young ones. Epithalamin, like L-DOPA, diphenine and phenformin, restored the restraint in old rats, and worked when injected into the brain's third ventricle.
Epitalon and epithalamin kept apart
A narrative review by US clinicians treats epithalamin as a chemically distinct pineal preparation and considers its studies separately, as history. For epitalon it finds human evidence limited to small studies, no adequately powered randomised trial, and too little information on dose, absorption and long-term safety.
Free radicals: the group's own data
The developers summarise their work: old rats had lower brain superoxide dismutase and more oxidation products in blood, and epithalamin cut serum chemiluminescence 2.8-fold and diene conjugates 4.1-fold while raising total antioxidant activity by about 37%. In patients with age-related disease they report it corrected the balance between oxidants and antioxidants.
No Established Human Dose
Epithalamin has been given to people in Russian and Ukrainian studies, as repeated injection courses in elderly volunteers, coronary patients, people with type 2 diabetes and others, but none of the abstracts read states how much was given, and none is a dose-finding trial. No regulator has approved a dose. The amounts used in rats and monkeys do not carry over to people, so no amount is printed here.
What this rests on: PMID 17426848, PMID 12577695, PMID 15452611, PMID 9821374.
Educational information, not medical advice. The doses on this page come from approved labels, published studies and, where no study exists, amounts reported by users. None is a recommendation for you. An unapproved compound has no established safe or effective human dose, and products sold for “research use only” are not made or tested for people. Talk to a doctor before acting on anything on this site, including before you start, stop or change any medicine or dose. Full medical disclaimer.
What a Buyer Needs to Know
What is sold, how it is mixed, stored and taken, and what is known about its safety, quality and legal status. Each part names its source. Where we have none, it says unknown.
What is sold
Unknown: we hold no label and no published test that says what forms or vial sizes Epithalamin is sold in. A vial's own label is a seller's claim, not a source.
Mixing a vial: a worked example
Unknown: no human dose of Epithalamin has been established (see No Established Human Dose below), so there is no amount to work out. The reconstitution calculator does the arithmetic for any vial, water and dose.
Storage before and after mixing
Unknown: no label or published stability study on file says how to store Epithalamin, before or after mixing. The mixing guide sets out the general rules, with their sources: keep a mixed vial in the fridge, and use it promptly, as the bacteriostatic water label says of any drug dissolved in it. The 28 days often quoted is the limit for an opened multiple-dose vial from a manufacturer, an outer limit set for sterility, not a time a mixed solution has been shown to keep. Nobody has published how long Epithalamin stays intact once mixed.
How it is taken
Unknown: with no established human dose, there is no established way of taking Epithalamin. What the human studies gave and how is set out under No Established Human Dose.
What to expect, and when
Unknown: no cited half-life and no label or trial duration on this page says how long Epithalamin lasts or how long it was given. Results reported in the studies are under Published Research.
Side effects, and when to stop or get help
From the Side Effects section: No abstract reports adverse events in numbers, and none describes systematic safety monitoring; A 2026 review finds long-term safety data inadequate for epitalon, the peptide designed from it, and treats epithalamin's own studies as historical (PMID 42884164). Full list and cautions ↓
When to stop or get help: unknown; no label or trial on file sets rules for stopping Epithalamin. Treat a severe or unexpected reaction as a reason to stop and see a doctor.
Source: the Side Effects section below (“From the abstracts read, which say little about safety”).
Interactions
Unknown: a PubMed search for human interaction studies of Epithalamin (reviewed 2026-10-28) found none. Unknown is not the same as safe to combine.
Every peptide's record, with its source: the interaction matrix.
Checking what you bought
Unknown: no published independent test of Epithalamin products is in our lab-results database yet, so how products sold under this name measure up is not known.
To read a certificate of analysis, paste it into the COA decoder. Trust & Verification explains what independent testing can and cannot show.
Legal status
US: Research Chemical (Not FDA- or EMA-approved: Drugs@FDA and the EMA medicines list hold no record (searched October 28, 2026)). Sport: Prohibited (S0 catch-all).
Country by country ↓ · Regulatory tracker
Source: this entry's approval status and the WADA Prohibited List, as in Legal Status below.
Side Effects & Contraindications
Reported Side Effects
From the abstracts read, which say little about safety.
Contraindications & Cautions
No product label was read for this page. These cautions follow from the evidence.
Legal Status
Epithalamin has been used in Russian clinical studies and is not approved in the US or EU.
Frequently Asked Questions
?What is epithalamin?
A mixture of peptides and small proteins extracted from cattle pineal glands, first tested in the Soviet Union in the 1970s and studied mainly by the Saint Petersburg Institute of Bioregulation and Gerontology as an anti-ageing preparation.
?Is epithalamin the same as epitalon?
No. Epitalon is a synthetic four-amino-acid peptide (Ala-Glu-Asp-Gly) designed from epithalamin's amino-acid composition. Epithalamin is the natural extract, a mixture. A 2026 review keeps their evidence separate, and so does this site.
?Does epithalamin extend life?
In fruit flies, mice and rats, courses of it lengthened average lifespan by 11 to 31%. In people, two long follow-ups by its developers report fewer deaths, but the studies are small, their abstracts give few details on how groups were formed, and no outside group has repeated them.
?What dose was used in people?
None of the abstracts read states one. The human studies describe injection courses repeated over months or years without giving the amount, and no dose-finding trial exists.
?Is epithalamin approved anywhere?
It has no FDA or EMA approval. A 1998 Russian study describes the epithalamin it used as made in Russia, but its current registration there was not verified for this page.
References
- [pubmed] Korkushko OV, et al. "Geroprotective effect of epithalamine (pineal gland peptide preparation) in elderly subjects with accelerated aging." Bull Exp Biol Med, 2006;142(3):356-9. PMID: 17426848.
- [pubmed] Khavinson VKh, et al. "[Geroprotective effect of thymalin and epithalamin]." Adv Gerontol, 2002;10:74-84. PMID: 12577695.
- [pubmed] Korkushko OV, et al. "Effect of peptide preparation epithalamin on circadian rhythm of epiphyseal melatonin-producing function in elderly people." Bull Exp Biol Med, 2004;137(4):389-91. PMID: 15452611.
- [pubmed] Labunets IF, et al. "Effect of epithalamin on circadian relationship between the endocrine function of the thymus and melatonin-producing function of the pineal gland in elderly people." Bull Exp Biol Med, 2004;137(5):507-9. PMID: 15455130.
- [pubmed] Labunets IF, et al. "Effect of epithalamin on the rhythm of immune and endocrine systems functioning in patients with chronic coronary disease." Bull Exp Biol Med, 2007;143(4):472-5. PMID: 18214303.
- [pubmed] Shustov SB, et al. "[Epithalamin effects on carbohydrate metabolism and cardiovascular system in patients with non-insulin dependent diabetes mellitus]." Klin Med (Mosk), 1998;76(9):45-8. PMID: 9821374.
- [pubmed] Egorov VV, et al. "[Administration of epithalamine in the treatment of unstable glaucoma of different types after normalization of intraocular pressure]." Vestn Oftalmol, 2003;119(1):5-7. PMID: 12608033.
- [pubmed] Zlamnik EIu, et al. "[Optimal conditions for producing immunomodulating effect of epithalamine as component of neoadjuvant chemotherapy using autoplasma and autoblood in patients with locally advanced breast cancer]." Vopr Onkol, 2004;50(3):357-60. PMID: 15318714.
- [pubmed] Slepushkin VD, et al. "[Effect of the epiphysial preparation epithalamin on the gonadotropic function of the hypophysis]." Probl Endokrinol (Mosk), 1983;29(6):51-4. PMID: 6419222.
- [pubmed] Dil'man VM. "[Improvement of the indicators of cellular immunity under the effect of polypeptide epiphyseal extract (epithalamine)]." Vopr Onkol, 1977;23(6):7-9. PMID: 303411.
- [pubmed] Sidorenko IuS, et al. "[Effect of epithalamin on free-radical reactions in the formed elements of blood from breast cancer patients]." Vopr Onkol, 2003;49(3):332-6. PMID: 12926216.
- [pubmed] Anisimov VN, et al. "Pineal peptide preparation epithalamin increases the lifespan of fruit flies, mice and rats." Mech Ageing Dev, 1998;103(2):123-32. PMID: 9701766.
- [pubmed] Anisimov VN, et al. "Effect of melatonin and pineal peptide preparation epithalamin on life span and free radical oxidation in Drosophila melanogaster." Mech Ageing Dev, 1997;97(2):81-91. PMID: 9226628.
- [pubmed] Bondarenko LA, et al. "[Age-related characteristics of the effects of epithalamin on serotonin metabolism in the pineal gland of rats]." Biull Eksp Biol Med, 1992;113(2):194-5. PMID: 1611074.
- [pubmed] Bondarenko LA, et al. "[Effects of an epiphyseal peptide preparation epithalamin on serotonin metabolism in the pineal gland of rats]." Biull Eksp Biol Med, 1990;110(8):150-1. PMID: 1705453.
- [pubmed] Zamorskii II, et al. "Effects of melatonin and epithalamin on the content of protein and lipid peroxidation products in rat cortex and hippocampus under conditions of acute hypoxia." Bull Exp Biol Med, 2012;154(1):51-3. PMID: 23330089.
- [pubmed] Zamors'kyĭ II, et al. "[Effect of melatonin and epithalamin on activity of marker enzymes in the cell membrane in the forebrain of rats under acute hypoxia]." Ukr Biokhim Zh (1999), 1999;71(6):33-6. PMID: 10820844.
- [pubmed] Zamorskiĭ II, et al. "[The role on non-adrenergic regulation in the reaction of the rat pineal body to acute hypoxia and epithalamine administration]." Vopr Med Khim, 2000;46(1):28-35. PMID: 10802883.
- [pubmed] Khavinson VK, et al. "Modulating effects of epithalamin and epithalon on the functional morphology of the spleen in old pinealectomized rats." Bull Exp Biol Med, 2001;132(5):1116-20. PMID: 11865335.
- [pubmed] Moskalik KG. "[Effect of thymalin and epithalamin on the metastasis of experimental tumors irradiated with pulsed laser radiation]." Vopr Onkol, 1987;33(1):57-62. PMID: 3811311.
- [pubmed] Dil'man VM, et al. "[An increase in hypothalamic sensitivity to the inhibiting effects of estrogens caused by use of L-DOPA, diphenine, epithalamin and phenformin in old rats]." Biull Eksp Biol Med, 1975;80(11):96-8. PMID: 1218271.
- [review] Jain A, et al. "Epitalon and Epithalamin: A Narrative Review of Mechanistic, Preclinical, and Clinical Evidence." Int J Mol Sci, 2026;27(19). PMID: 42884164.
- [review] Anisimov VN, et al. "Effects of pineal peptide preparation Epithalamin on free-radical processes in humans and animals." Neuro Endocrinol Lett, 2001;22(1):9-18. PMID: 11335874.
- [review] Anisimov VN, et al. "Twenty years of study on effects of pineal peptide preparation: epithalamin in experimental gerontology and oncology." Ann N Y Acad Sci, 1994;719:483-93. PMID: 8010617.
- [pubmed] Khavinson VKh, et al. "Peptides of pineal gland and thymus prolong human life." Neuro Endocrinol Lett, 2003;24(3-4):233-40. PMID: 14523363.
- [pubmed] Korkushko OV, et al. "Peptide geroprotector from the pituitary gland inhibits rapid aging of elderly people: results of 15-year follow-up." Bull Exp Biol Med, 2011;151(3):366-9. PMID: 22451889.
- [review] Korkushko OV, et al. "[Normalizing effect of the pineal gland peptides on the daily melatonin rhythm in old monkeys and elderly people]." Adv Gerontol, 2007;20(1):74-85. PMID: 17969590.
- [pubmed] Goncharova ND, et al. "[Peptide correction of age-related pineal disturbances in monkeys]." Adv Gerontol, 2003;12:121-7. PMID: 14743609.
Sources & Citations
Every study on this page was read from its PubMed record on October 29, 2026; most are Russian-language papers with English abstracts. Four papers about epithalamin whose titles do not name it, including the 15-year follow-up of 79 coronary patients, are listed under References with a reason. Regulatory status comes from Drugs@FDA and the EMA medicines list, read October 28, 2026. Grey Peptides sells nothing and links to no vendor.
Medical Disclaimer: This content is for educational and informational purposes only. It is not medical advice, and nothing here is an instruction to obtain or use any compound. Talk to a licensed clinician about your own situation.