In this post we’ll be looking at an October 2021 analysis done by Chromadex, which found 14 of the 22 NMN products they analyzed had less than 1% NMN!
- Chromadex are the company behind Niagen, a leading Nicotinamide Riboside supplement.
- They chose the 22 products by looking at the top sellers on Amazon.com*
- The way they measured the purity was via High Performance Liquid Chromatography (HPLC).
- *As of recently, Amazon is not listing NMN, due to the FDA deciding that it NMN no longer be sold in the USA. It’s a strange story, and the decision hasn’t come about because something changed in terms of the safety or efficacy of NMN. More on it here.
The table below shows their results:
| Product Name | Product Label Claim (mg NMN/serving) | Result (mg NMN/serving) |
| DoubleWood NMN | 250 | 243 |
| Infinite Age NMN | 250 | 252 |
| ProHealth Longevity NMN Pro 300 | 300 | 301 |
| maac10 NMN 250 mg | 250 | 260 |
| Jarrow Formulas NMN | 125 | 122 |
| GeneX Formulations NMN | 500 | 456 |
| ForestLeaf NMN | 250 | 219 |
| Toniiq NMN | 300 | 289 |
| monoHerb NMN | 250 | <1% (Less than 1%) |
| EliteHealth NMN* | 500 | <1% |
| Energecko NMN* | 500 | <1% |
| LIVEMAX NMN* | 500 | <1% |
| NMN MAX NMN* | 500 | <1% |
| NMN PLUS NMN* | 500 | <1% |
| NMN STAR NMN* | 500 | <1% |
| Starhonor NMN* | 500 | <1% |
| Vitablossom NMN Refresh* | 500 | <1% |
| Vitamin Shower NMN* | 500 | <1% |
| VIVALIFER NMN | 500 | <1% |
| ChriBubble NMN* | 500 | 0% |
| Komprocha NMN & Resveratrol | 500 | 0% |
| Paragon Health NMN | 500 | 0% |
The first 8 entries contained a similar amount of NMN as they advertise.
However, the next 14 entries below had less than 1% NMN. “Less than 1%” can also be written shorthand as <1%.
In the analysis Chromadex point out that the same distributor was listed on 10 of the products (those asterisked * in the above table).
They all contained <1% NMN, and they all showed a prominent, unknown peak on the HPLC analysis. Suggesting they all contained an extra, unknown substance.
This substance may be benign, or it may be something undesirable. The study didn’t analyze further to find out what it is.
The distributor’s name for those 10 products is SerumLab S&C International LLC.
Perhaps of note, is that when you look at the seller details for these products, they all appear to be Chinese sellers with their registered address in China.
To see this, visit Amazon.com on a web browser, and go to one of the asterisked products above. Then find where it says “Ships from Amazon, Sold by:” and then click on the name of the company it’s sold by. For example:
Then, clicking on USMAXNMN you’ll see:
Roundup
This study highlights the need for careful due diligence when purchasing an NMN product.
The results suggest that there are a number of people out there, taking what they believe to be NMN, but it’s actually something else.
I’m not sure what we can do to solve that, but at least having the awareness this study provides should help move things forward.
Lastly, thanks to Chromadex for the research.
If you’ve any questions or comments, please leave them below.
