I think we have you figured out.
You are the kid that took apart your dad’s Walkman or your mom’s microwave to figure out how each of those worked.
Putting it back together was another story. It was not that important, right? If you were brilliant enough to put them back together, you are at the right place, researching the right molecule to not only enhance your overall cognition but also reclaim your child-like energy.
I am not going to get into the benefits of NMN, because that’s not what you’re here to read. You can find that here: The Benefits of NMN
There are 3 methods that are used to manufacture NMN.
1. Chemical synthesis – Expensive & Not environmentally friendly
2. Enzymatic production – Expensive & Slow
3. Fermentation – Not as easy as beer
Let’s get into it
Fermentation:
As I said, it’s not easy as throwing in a few ingredients and letting it sit. It’s not as easy as making beer. Not that making beer is easy, but I’m sure it’s easier than fermenting this panacea into existence.
If you don’t know what fermentation is, look it up. The gist – it involves the breaking up of organic matter by bacteria or yeast or other microorganisms.
One of the ways of producing NMN is by yeast fermentation. NMN produced using this method is of high quality. However, the raw ingredients needed for this process end up costing much more than the yield of the NMN.
NMN is found in small quantities in several avocados, broccoli, cabbage, edamame, cucumbers, etc. However, the quantity of NMN found in these is very low and requires a large amount of raw material to produce usable amounts of NMN.
Additionally, the product stability is quite low.
Enzymatic process:
Enzymes are proteins that act as catalysts in all living beings. They speed up processes that are essential for digestion, liver function, and a multitude of other pathways/reactions in your body.
Enzymes require certain conditions to function optimally. Alternations in these conditions result in the failure of the pathway/reaction and the process will have to be restarted again.
NMN is produced from NAM (nicotinamide) with the help of the NAMPT (nicotinamide phosphoribosyltransferase) enzyme, where NMN attaches a phosphate called PRPP (5’-phosphoribosyl-1-pyrophosphate). NMN with high purity can be obtained through this process along with a high yield.
The final product has a small molecular structure, low density, poor fluidity, and can be absorbed quite easily.
One more thing, the purity of the final product and the yield is directly proportional to the purity of the enzyme that is used.
Chemical process:
This process, in addition to the enzymatic process, produces NMN with the highest purity. Like all other chemical reactions, each of the steps is controlled to ensure a high yield.
NMN is produced through Zincke’s reaction. N-(2,4- dinitrophenyl)-3-carbamoylpyridinium chloride (compound A) and 2′,3′- O-isopropylidene-α/β-D-ribofuranosylamine (compound B) are the main two compound that takes place in the reaction
The raw ingredients used in this process are not entirely safe for the environment. This limits the reliance on chemical processes to produce high-yield and high-purity NMN.
What does each company use to produce NMN
· Uthever – Enzymatic process
· Wonderfeel: Enzymatic process.
· Donotage: Enzymatic process
· Decode age* – Enzymatic process
· Fitness Veda – Unknown
· Zaaz NMN – Fermentation with yeast
