Epitalon: evidence, half-life, and how to track it
Epitalon, also spelled epithalon, is a synthetic tetrapeptide — alanine, glutamic acid, aspartic acid and glycine (AEDG) — built from the amino-acid composition of a bovine pineal gland extract (Araj et al., International Journal of Molecular Sciences, 2025). Most of the published work on it is in cells and animals, the human reports are few and early, no human half-life has been published, and DailyMed lists no label for it.
By Tessaro Pty Ltd, the maker of Pepti · Last reviewed
This page is a reference, not a protocol. It sets out what the published research reports and in which model systems, what the absence of a human half-life means for a record, and what a clean log holds. It gives no dose figures and no schedule, and the section below explains why that is deliberate rather than an omission.
Reference
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Class / type | Synthetic tetrapeptide, Ala-Glu-Asp-Gly (AEDG), based on the amino-acid composition of epithalamin, a bovine pineal gland extract — (Araj et al., 2025) |
| Evidence base | Mostly in vitro and animal; telomere findings are from cell culture (Khavinson et al., 2003; Al-Dulaimi et al., 2025); a few early human reports (Khavinson et al., 2002; Korkushko et al., 2007) |
| Half-life | No reliable human half-life has been published; no human pharmacokinetic study was found in PubMed (searched October 2026) |
| Regulatory status | No label listed on DailyMed (checked October 2026); identified as a research peptide in illegal pharmaceutical preparations — (Vanhee et al., 2015) |
What the research shows
Epitalon — also written Epithalon or Epithalone — is the tetrapeptide Ala-Glu-Asp-Gly, synthesised from the amino-acid composition of epithalamin, a bovine pineal gland extract. A 2025 review describes 25 years of in-vitro, in-vivo and computer-modelling work reporting effects on melatonin synthesis, interleukin-2 messenger RNA and the activity of several enzymes including telomerase, while noting that it remains uncertain whether these are its only mechanisms and that physico-chemical and structural studies of the peptide are still limited (Araj et al., International Journal of Molecular Sciences, 2025).
The telomere findings that drive most interest come from cell culture. Added to telomerase-negative human fetal fibroblasts, the peptide induced telomerase expression and activity and telomere elongation (Khavinson et al., Bulletin of Experimental Biology and Medicine, 2003). A 2025 cell-line study found dose-dependent telomere lengthening in normal epithelial cells and fibroblasts through telomerase; it also found telomere lengthening in two breast cancer cell lines, through a different mechanism known as alternative lengthening of telomeres (Al-Dulaimi et al., Biogerontology, 2025). These results describe cells in a dish, not a person.
The human reports are few and early, and their abstracts give no patient numbers. One reported a positive clinical effect in 90% of patients with degenerative retinal disease (Khavinson et al., Neuro Endocrinology Letters, 2002). Another, published in Russian with an English abstract, reported that epitalon and the pineal extract raised night-time melatonin in older people with reduced pineal function (Korkushko et al., Advances in Gerontology, 2007).
Two more recent sources set the context. A 2026 review of therapeutic peptides in gerontology, which included epitalon, concluded that the non-approved peptides showed promising preclinical but limited clinical evidence and lack long-term safety data (Mavrych et al., Frontiers in Aging, 2026). And epitalon has been identified as a research peptide in two illegal pharmaceutical preparations (Vanhee et al., Drug Testing and Analysis, 2015).
The limits are the whole story here. No human pharmacokinetic study of it is indexed in PubMed (searched October 2026), the human reports are early and give no patient numbers in their abstracts, and there is no label for it in DailyMed. Results obtained in a dish, a rat or a short early report are a reason to run proper human studies, not a substitute for them.
On compounding, the US FDA’s list of bulk substances that may present significant safety risks, current as of April 2026, places epitalon among substances previously in its “category 2” whose nominations were withdrawn, and the FDA’s Pharmacy Compounding Advisory Committee met on 23–24 July 2026 to consider epitalon for the list of bulk substances that pharmacies may compound from (FDA, 2026; Federal Register, 2026). The committee advises the FDA and does not decide, and the FDA had posted no minutes or decision when we checked in October 2026. Neither step is an approval: epitalon remains an unapproved drug in the US.
Sources (11)
- Araj SK, et al., International Journal of Molecular Sciences, 2025 — overview of epitalon, the pineal tetrapeptide (review). Find on PubMed
- Khavinson VKh, et al., Bulletin of Experimental Biology and Medicine, 2003 — telomerase activity and telomere elongation in human fetal fibroblast culture. Find on PubMed
- Al-Dulaimi S, et al., Biogerontology, 2025 — telomere length in normal and breast cancer cell lines, through telomerase or ALT. Find on PubMed
- Khavinson V, et al., Neuro Endocrinology Letters, 2002 — epitalon in retinitis pigmentosa, rats and patients. Find on PubMed
- Korkushko OV, et al., Advances in Gerontology, 2007 — pineal peptides and the daily melatonin rhythm in old monkeys and elderly people (in Russian, English abstract). Find on PubMed
- Mavrych V, et al., Frontiers in Aging, 2026 — therapeutic peptides in gerontology (review). Find on PubMed
- Vanhee C, et al., Drug Testing and Analysis, 2015 — identification of the research tetrapeptide epitalon in two illegal pharmaceutical preparations. Find on PubMed
- Manning MC, et al., Pharmaceutical Research, 2010 — stability of protein pharmaceuticals (review). Find on PubMed
- U.S. Food and Drug Administration, Certain Bulk Drug Substances for Use in Compounding that May Present Significant Safety Risks, content current as of 22 April 2026 — lists epitalon among nominations withdrawn from category 2. Read on FDA.gov
- Federal Register, 16 April 2026 (document 2026-07361) — notice of the FDA Pharmacy Compounding Advisory Committee meeting of 23–24 July 2026, which listed epitalon for consideration for the 503A Bulks List. Read on FederalRegister.gov
- U.S. Food and Drug Administration, July 23–24, 2026: Meeting of the Pharmacy Compounding Advisory Committee, content current as of 6 August 2026 — meeting page with the final agenda and FDA presentations; no minutes posted when checked in October 2026. Read on FDA.gov
What the absence of a human half-life means for your record
No reliable human half-life has been published, and a PubMed search in October 2026 found no human pharmacokinetic study of epitalon at all. Any single number quoted for it online is therefore not drawn from a human study. The practical consequence for a record is simple: you cannot lean on a known clearance curve to tell you where levels sit between entries, so the dated log of what you entered and when is the only timeline you can rely on.
That is also why Pepti does not print a half-life for this compound. Where a figure exists from a human study, our reference pages cite it; where none does, as here, the half-life calculator on this site is driven entirely by a value you enter yourself. The number is yours to supply or to leave blank — neither this site nor the app will invent one and present it as settled.
Storage and handling
This is general handling, not product-specific instruction. Peptides degrade by both chemical and physical routes, and formulations are stabilised differently in aqueous solution than in the dried (lyophilized) state (Manning et al., Pharmaceutical Research, 2010). Material supplied as a dried powder is generally the more robust form and is inert until a diluent is added; once in solution it is more vulnerable, so it is kept cold and dark, used within a limited window, protected from repeated freeze-thaw, and handled with clean technique.
The record-keeping point is the one Pepti cares about: the moment a powder becomes a solution, two facts are created that you will need later and will not otherwise remember — the diluent volume you added and the date you mixed it. Writing them down at the time is the difference between a vial record you can trust and one you are guessing about.
How to track it in Pepti
Pepti is built for exactly this situation: a compound you already have a figure for, supplied in a vial that needs a careful record. If you mix it yourself, the free reconstitution calculator on this site (not the app) takes the variables you enter — the amount in the vial and the diluent volume — and returns the concentration and the draw volume for the figure you already hold. Every input is a value you supply; none is a dose the site suggests.
From there the injection-site rotation tracker keeps a 12-site sequence so each administration lands somewhere other than the last, and the half-life calculator on this site (not the app) — because no human half-life has been published for this compound — is driven entirely by a value you choose to enter. The app holds the record and the history; the clinical figures stay with you.
Why this page has no dosing section
Epitalon is a research peptide. There is no label for it in DailyMed, so there is no US-labelled dose, schedule or clinician-facing guidance to point to. Any figure published as a “typical dose” for it is not drawn from an approved source, because none exists — it comes from forum consensus, vendor copy, or someone extrapolating a number out of a cell or animal study that was never designed to set a human dose.
Pepti is a record-keeping tool. It logs the figure you already have with the date, time, site and vial, and remembers where the last injection went — but it does not supply or calculate the figure, for this compound or any other. Pages that publish dose tables for preclinical compounds are publishing folklore with the typography of evidence. The figure belongs to you and whoever directs your use; the record is what we are for.
What a clean epitalon record holds
Because there is no settled schedule for this compound, the thing that makes a record useful is not cadence but completeness: each entry should say enough that the next one, and your reading of the trend months later, is unambiguous.
- Date and time — the actual clock time, not “morning”. Patterns are invisible until written down.
- The figure you already have — whatever was decided with whoever directs your use, in the unit you think in. This page does not supply it.
- Route and form — injected or otherwise, and whether the vial was a powder you reconstituted or arrived as a solution. The forms are not interchangeable in a record.
- The date any figure changed — not the figure itself, the date. The dates of change are what turn a list of entries into a readable history.
- Injection site — which of the twelve zones, so the next one goes somewhere else.
- Vial records — if the vial arrived as a powder, the diluent volume, resulting concentration and the date it was mixed, so a later draw is not a guess.
- Response and symptom notes — recorded the same way each time. The line across weeks is the part worth keeping.
The free reconstitution calculator on this site (not the app) converts the figures you already have into a draw volume and a count of doses per vial; the peptide tracking app guide shows how to keep your log, the site sequence and your notes on one timeline.
Common questions
What is epitalon?
Epitalon is a synthetic tetrapeptide, Ala-Glu-Asp-Gly (AEDG), synthesised from the amino-acid composition of epithalamin, a bovine pineal gland extract. Laboratory studies report effects on melatonin synthesis and on enzymes including telomerase, though it remains uncertain whether these are its only mechanisms (Araj et al., International Journal of Molecular Sciences 2025). It is a research peptide with no label listed on DailyMed.
Is epitalon the same as epithalon?
Yes. Epitalon, Epithalon and Epithalone are spellings of the same tetrapeptide, Ala-Glu-Asp-Gly (Araj et al., International Journal of Molecular Sciences 2025). It is not the same as epithalamin, the bovine pineal gland extract whose amino-acid composition it was based on.
What is epitalon's half-life?
No reliable human half-life has been published. A PubMed search in October 2026 found no human pharmacokinetic study of epitalon, so any single number quoted for it is not drawn from a human study. The half-life calculator on this site works from a value you enter yourself, never one we supply.
Does epitalon lengthen telomeres?
In cell culture, yes: it induced telomerase activity and telomere elongation in human fetal fibroblasts (Khavinson et al., Bulletin of Experimental Biology and Medicine 2003), and a 2025 study found telomere lengthening in normal cells and, through a different mechanism, in two breast cancer cell lines (Al-Dulaimi et al., Biogerontology 2025). These are cell-culture results; none of the studies cited here measured telomeres in people.
Is epitalon approved?
No label for epitalon is listed on DailyMed, the US National Library of Medicine's label database (checked October 2026). It has been identified as a research peptide in two illegal pharmaceutical preparations (Vanhee et al., Drug Testing and Analysis 2015), and a 2026 review found the non-approved ageing peptides it covered lack long-term safety data (Mavrych et al., Frontiers in Aging 2026).
Does Pepti tell me what dose to take?
No. Pepti supplies no dose figures for epitalon or for anything else. It records the figure you already have from whoever directs your use, with the date, time, injection site and vial, and keeps the 12-zone site sequence. The record is ours; the figure is not.
This page is a reference on published evidence and record-keeping. It does not recommend epitalon or any other substance, and it provides no dose figure, no titration amount, and no schedule. Epitalon is a research peptide with no label listed on DailyMed.
The Pepti peptide tracker for iPhone keeps the log, the site sequence, the vial records and your notes in one place.
Not medical advice. Pepti is a record-keeping tool, not a medical device.
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