Is Epicatechin legal in the United Kingdom?

Extended median lifespan of male mice by 5 percent in the 2021 Interventions Testing Program cohort, with no effect in females. In people, small randomised trials of the pure compound show an insulin signal at 100 mg a day and nothing at 25 mg a day, and the endothelial effect that made its name is best documented as an acute response to cocoa.

Epicatechin is the flavan-3-ol that gives cocoa most of its vascular reputation. It is sold as a purified supplement, mostly on the strength of a 2014 report that a week of it raised grip strength and the follistatin to myostatin ratio in a handful of people, and it is the compound in cocoa that the 2006 PNAS mechanistic study identified as responsible for the acute improvement in flow-mediated dilation after a flavanol-rich drink.

Mechanism: In people, ingestion of flavanol-rich cocoa acutely raises circulating nitric oxide species and flow-mediated dilation, and regression analysis identified (-)-epicatechin and its 7-O-glucuronide metabolite as the independent predictors of that effect; giving pure (-)-epicatechin reproduced it, and blocking nitric oxide synthase abolished it. In seven adults with Becker muscular dystrophy, eight weeks of 50 mg twice daily raised muscle LKB1, AMPK and PGC-1alpha, increased mitochondrial cristae density on electron microscopy, and shifted follistatin up and myostatin down, in an open-label study with no control group.

Regulatory history: Not an approved drug. Sold as a dietary supplement and present in cocoa. The lifespan result is in male mice only. (+)-Epicatechin, a synthetic enantiomer, is investigational for muscular dystrophy.

Licenses medicines for the UK market. A compound without a marketing authorisation is an unlicensed medicine, which can only lawfully be supplied for human use through a prescriber under the specials scheme, not sold as a research product.

The classification above is the The Longevity Archive reading of Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency listings for Epicatechin at the reviewed date, not a legal opinion. Rules change, and importing, prescribing and possessing a compound can each be treated differently. Check the regulator directly before acting on anything here.