Is Epicatechin legal in the United Kingdom?

In people, small studies of the pure compound found a small drop in fasting insulin at 100 mg a day and nothing at 25 mg a day. Its fame for better blood flow comes mostly from a short-term response to cocoa drinks. In male mice, it made typical lifespan 5 percent longer in the 2021 run of the NIA mouse lifespan program. Female mice saw no change.

Epicatechin is a plant compound found in cocoa. It gets most of the credit for cocoa's name as good for blood vessels.

How it works: In people, a cocoa drink rich in flavanols quickly raises nitric oxide in the blood. Nitric oxide relaxes blood vessels, so arteries widen more.

Approval history: Not an approved drug. Sold as a dietary supplement and present in cocoa. The lifespan result is in male mice only. (+)-Epicatechin, a lab-made mirror-image form, is investigational for muscular dystrophy.

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 Epicatechin 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 Epicatechin 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 Epicatechin 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.