The NMN component
Learn about NMN
What kind of substance is NMN?
NMN, which is short for nicotinamide mononucleotide, is a substance generated naturally in your body from vitamin B3 and plays a vital role in the activity of the cells.
NMN is a precursor of NAD (nicotinamide dinucleotide), an indispensable coenzyme that exists in the cells of all organisms.
NMN is naturally created in your body from vitamin B3, but your body gradually loses its ability to generate it as you get older.
What foods are rich in NMN?
How much NMN is there in broccoli or edamame beans?
NMN is contained in vegetables like edamame, broccoli or avocado, fruits and seeds, among others. If you eat 100 g of them, the NMN content would be around 2 mg, which is not enough for anti-aging purposes. For example, the total estimated in your red cells is 50 mg, but you may think that you are helping, even if it’s just a little.
However, the body’s ability to generate NMN decreases with age, and the intake from your diet is not enough to compensate that. To take 150 mg of NMN, you would need to eat around 12000 edamame beans or 2400 heads of broccoli. Just for argument’s sake, let’s note that you could also have around 600 avocados, 10000 shrimps, but those numbers are not very practical, either.
That is why it is important you take NMN by other external means.
| Food | Units equivalent to 300 mg of NMN |
|---|---|
| Edamame | 24,000 |
| Broccoli | 4,800 |
| Cabbage | 28 |
| Avocado | 720 |
| Tomato | 720 |
| Mushroom | 2,400 |
| Beef (raw) | 2,400g |
| Shimp | 12,000 |
Optical enantiomers (α-NMN andβ-NMN)
NNMN exists with two different molecular structures: α-NMN and β-NMN.
These two structures have exactly the same number and type of atoms, but the connections between them point in different directions. These structures are called “optical enantiomers.” You can see the differences between α-NMN and β-NMN in the images below.
Molecular structures of β-NMN and α-NMN
Molecular structures overlapped
The NMN that we need is β-NMN, which is naturally generated in our bodies. The other NMN, α-NMN, is something we don’t need and something not produced in us.
However, NMN manufactured by chemical synthesis for the sake of cost reduction will most probably end up being a mixture of α-NMN and β-NMN. Products that contain full β-NMN must be manufactured according to an extremely precise process, and that’s exactly what Mirai Lab is offering you: high-quality NMN supplements with the only NMN you should care about, β-NMN.
Impurities in NMN
Most of the commercially available NMN products contain impurities. Some of these are not found in the human body by nature.
The Institute for Research on Productive Aging (IRPA) conducted some tests to determine what impurities were contained in 4 NMN samples from as many companies.
First, the samples were analyzed following the LC-UV method (1), and then the separation peaks that could be detected as impurities were tested by mass spectrometry (MS) to identify their components.
The results showed that the only impurity in Mirai Lab's NMN was nicotinamide.
Impurities in NMN samples
| Impurities in NMN samples | Our NMN | SA Company (America) | OY Company (Japanese N Company) | Self-Affirmed GRAS (2) Company |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| NMN PURITY(%) | 99.0 | 97.2 | 98.3 | 97.5 |
| Impurity 1 (in vivo substance) |
C6H7N2O Nicotinamide(※1) |
C6H7N2O Nicotinamide(※1) |
C6H7N2O Nicotinamide(※1) |
C6H7N2O Nicotinamide(※1) |
| Impurity 2 | C11H25NO9P | C11H25NO9P | ||
| Impurity 3 | C10H16N5O10P2 | |||
| Impurity 4 | C9H15N3O8P | |||
| Impurity 5 | C9H15N3O7P | |||
| Impurity 6 | C9H16N4O8P | |||
| Impurity 7 | C10H15N5O2P | |||
| Impurity 8 | C21H27N6O15P2 |
By the Institute for Research on Productive Aging (IRPA).
(1) C6H7N2O (nicotinamide, also called niacin or nicotinic acid) is a substance that can be safely ingested by humans as a nutrient.
(2) Self-Affirmed GRAS: The US GRAS system (Generally Recognized As Safe), implemented by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA), is a safety evaluation carried out by independent toxicity experts. The so-called Self-Affirmed GRAS, a kind of self-certification, is not officially recognized by FDA.
Nicotinamide (also called niacin or nicotinic acid), which is an impurity contained in the NMN of all four companies, is a substance that can be safely ingested by humans as a nutrient.
On the other hand, the NMN samples from "OY company" and the "Self-Affirmed GRAS Company" contain not only nicotinamide, but many other types of impurities as well.
In particular, the NMN from the "Self-Affirmed GRAS Company" contains as many as 6 types of impurities in addition to nicotinamide, and some of them are not considered substances found in vivo. Naturally this raises concerns regarding the kind of adverse effects that can result from the long-term intake of NMN with a large amount of impurities.
So, even if a product label reads “high-purity NMN”, we cannot ascertain what impurities it really contains. Also, please be aware that you can find on the market products which claim to contain NMN, but whose purity degree is low and its safety is not proven.
If you want the real thing,
take the only NMN supplements recognized
by the world-leading authority on NMN
World-leading authority on NMN Professor Shin-ichiro Imai blows the whistle on the pandemonium of NMN capsules available on the market and warns that the only products whose safety on humans has been proven are Mirailab Bioscience’s.
We bring you NMN products with almost no impurities, full β-NMN (never α-NMN) with an absolute purity over 99%, unmatched by any other company.
In addition, we were the first in the world to conduct human clinical research, and since we have the only in-house research laboratory specialized in NMN in Japan, we got ourselves a reputation as pioneers of NMN bio-venture, handling everything from research to sales.
If you want the real thing, take Mirai Lab’s academia-quality NMN supplements.