Melatonin is one of the legal drugs in the United States, and it is available as a supplement which is either synthetic or natural. Natural melatonin comes from the animal’s gland known as pineal. It is not recommended to use the natural melatonin from animal’s pineal gland since it contains various viruses; in addition, synthetic melatonin does not bear the risk. Melatonin plays a significant role in the body; it regulates (circadian rhythms) the time to sleep or to wake up. Chemists study both structural and chemical structure of melatonin and how it inhibits the body enzymes; the structure form mainly constitutes of; Carbon, Hydrogen, Nitrogen and oxygen elements C13H16N2O2. Furthermore, melatonin protects some tissues from oxidative intact. It is a highly efficient impurity remover of reactive oxygen species (Slominski et al., 2018).
In humans, melatonin principally undergoes different metabolism by a compound 6-hydroxymelatonin, which in progress conjugated with sulfate hence excreted in the urine. Melatonin similarly can undergo metabolism by an enzyme known as hepatic cytochrome. Extrahepatic leads to the formation of a compound 6-hydroxymelatonin, where in turn a small extent of CYP1A2 demethylates some melatonin to its precursor. After metabolism, melatonin enters the brain nervous system either by a pineal recess or direct uptake from the blood (Slominski et al., 2018).
Melatonin falls under the category of a competitive inhibitor of 6-hydroxymelatonin. Given the inhibition of melatonin, the 6-hydroxymelatonin facilitates the De alkylating of ethoxylated substrates. Below are Some of the long-term effects of melatonin in humans; A patient who has Parkinson’s illness benefit from continuous use of melatonin since the disease connects with disruption of melatonin in the body. Lastly, melatonin aid to manage some of the risk factors that lead to stroke and high blood pressure (Slominski et al., 2018).
References
Slominski, A. T., Hardeland, R., Zmijewski, M. A., Slominski, R. M., Reiter, R. J., & Paus, R. (2018). Melatonin: a cutaneous perspective on its production, metabolism, and functions. Journal of Investigative Dermatology.
