Is Caffeic acid phenethyl ester legal in the United Kingdom?

Nobody has published a study of CAPE itself in people. In mice, it did not extend lifespan at either dose by the NIA program's standard test. A 2024 second look, using a test that counts early deaths more, found a 5 percent gain in typical female lifespan at 300 ppm.

CAPE (caffeic acid phenethyl ester) is one of the active parts of propolis, the sticky resin honeybees use to seal their hives. In a dish, it is studied as a blocker of NF-kappa B, a master switch for inflammation.

How it works: In a dish, CAPE fully blocks NF-kappa B, a master switch for inflammation, when cells are hit with inflammatory signals. The block grows with dose and time.

Approval history: Not an approved drug. Sold as a supplement ingredient and as part of propolis, a resin bees make. No study in people has been published. The lifespan hint in female mice comes only from a second look at the data using one statistical test (the Gehan test).

Licenses medicines for sale in the UK. A compound without a licence to be sold (a marketing authorisation) is an unlicensed medicine. The law only lets it reach people through a prescriber, under the specials scheme (unlicensed medicines made for one patient's needs). It cannot be sold as a research product.

The legal category above is how The Longevity Archive reads Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency listings for Caffeic acid phenethyl ester on the reviewed date. It is not a legal opinion. Rules change. Bringing a compound into the country, prescribing it and owning it can each be treated differently. Check with the agency before you act on anything here.

Check MHRA directly

Whether Caffeic acid phenethyl ester is banned in sport is set by the World Anti-Doping Code and by military rules, not by its legal status in the United Kingdom. Before you compete or get tested, look up Caffeic acid phenethyl ester by name on the Prohibited List, or look up a named product in Global DRO. Under the World Anti-Doping Code, category S0 bans, at all times, any drug-like substance that meets two tests. No other section of the List covers it. And no government health regulator anywhere has a current approval for it as a treatment in people. Many substances that are approved somewhere are banned by name in another section. So approval does not mean a substance is allowed in sport.

• WADA Prohibited List
• Global DRO (check a named product)
• USADA (US athletes)
• Operation Supplement Safety (US service members)

The rules you compete or serve under decide this, not this page.