NMN in South Africa: status and where it is sold

NMN is on sale at Dis-Chem. Biogen NMN, 30 vegetable capsules, is labelled as a complementary medicine and a health supplement, scheduling status S0. The leaflet says this unregistered medicine has not been evaluated by SAHPRA for its quality, safety or intended use. That is the status. It is not a quiet form of approval. SAHPRA's own complementary-medicine page allows low-risk sale while registration is unfinished, and it draws a line at claims that treat a disease or that say a product is clinically proven.

What the label is allowed to sound like

Low-risk wording is general health enhancement, health maintenance, or minor symptoms that are not a named disease. The Advertising Regulatory Board is where an advertisement is judged. HPCSA-registered practitioners are not supposed to turn a consult into a product promotion. This page can report a rand price. It does not tell a clinician to recommend the capsule, and it does not say the capsule treats aging.

The leaflet says each capsule contains 500 mg of β-nicotinamide mononucleotide, providing 181.79 mg of nicotinamide, plus 70 mg of an inulin ingredient. The pack is 30 capsules. The Dis-Chem page showed R664.99 and a special price of R598.49, and it called the displayed figure a single exit price that excludes a dispensing fee. The leaflet says the product is not recommended under 18, and it tells people on prescribed medicine to check with a healthcare provider. It also says nicotinamide and its derivatives might theoretically increase bleeding risk, so people with bleeding disorders should be careful. That bleeding line is the leaflet's caution.

What the human trials show

NMN is nicotinamide mononucleotide. Cells can use it on the way to making NAD, a molecule used in ordinary energy chemistry. That sentence is biochemistry. It is not a result. The human trials measured markers and a few functions. They did not measure whether anyone lives longer.

Yoshino and colleagues, published in Science in 2021, randomised 25 postmenopausal women with prediabetes who were overweight or obese. Thirteen took 250 mg of NMN a day and twelve took placebo, for 10 weeks, double blind. Muscle insulin sensitivity, measured with a clamp, was about 25% higher after NMN than before it. The placebo group did not show that change. Insulin signalling in muscle (AKT and mTOR phosphorylation) increased after NMN. Body fat, blood pressure, and blood lipids did not change in the way a weight-loss advert would want. The paper reports no adverse events and no abnormal standard blood tests in either group. Twenty-five women, ten weeks, one research centre: this is an early metabolic finding in a narrow group. It is not evidence that NMN treats diabetes, and the participants already had prediabetes, so the result does not automatically apply to a healthy reader.

Yi and colleagues, 2023, randomised 80 healthy middle-aged adults to placebo or to 300 mg, 600 mg or 900 mg of NMN once a day for 60 days. Everyone finished. Blood NAD was higher at day 30 and day 60 in every NMN group than in placebo, and the 600 mg and 900 mg groups were highest. Distance on a six-minute walk increased more than placebo at day 30 and day 60. A HOMA-IR insulin-resistance figure was not different from placebo at day 60. The authors said they saw no safety problem on the adverse events and the laboratory measures they tracked, up to 900 mg a day for 60 days. They also reported a blood 'biological age' calculator that moved in the placebo group and not in the NMN groups. That calculator is not a clock you can read at home, and a 60-day difference on it is not evidence that the participants became younger. The trial's own background sentence mentions animal lifespan. The human trial did not measure lifespan.

Put the two trials together and the established part is narrow. Oral NMN can raise a blood NAD measure over weeks, at the amounts Yi used, in middle-aged adults who were healthy enough to join that trial. A single small trial found a muscle insulin-sensitivity change in postmenopausal women with prediabetes at 250 mg a day. Walking distance moved in Yi's trial. What is not shown is longer life, a treatment for diabetes, a change in body composition, or safety over years. EFSA's 2026 opinion, below, is a safety opinion on one specified ingredient. It is not a verdict that NMN 'works'.

Amounts used in those studies

Yoshino used 250 mg a day for 10 weeks. Yi used 300, 600 or 900 mg a day for 60 days, and the authors said physical-performance and NAD measures looked strongest at 600 mg rather than at 900 mg. EFSA assessed one chemically synthesised β-NMN, at least 99% pure, at up to 300 mg a day as a proposed food-supplement use in adults who are not pregnant and not lactating. The panel said 300 mg corresponds to about 109.7 mg of nicotinamide, below the 900 mg a day upper level it cites for nicotinamide, and about five times a population reference intake for niacin. A rat study found effects on reproductive organs, with a no-observed-adverse-effect level of 400 mg per kilogram of body weight a day. Those figures describe a safety file and trial protocols. They are not a recommended intake. There is no NHS or NIH recommended intake for NMN, because it is not an essential vitamin in its own right. The body can make it from nicotinamide.

Five hundred milligrams in one Biogen capsule is above the 300 mg a day EFSA assessed and above Yoshino's 250 mg, and it sits inside the range Yi studied if a person takes one capsule. Yi also studied 600 and 900 mg. Matching a number is not a reason to take it. The product is unregistered. Great Britain has not authorised NMN as a novel food. The US FDA's September 2025 decision is not South African law. EFSA's safety opinion excluded pregnancy and breastfeeding.

The Dis-Chem listing includes a full leaflet. If you are pregnant, on blood thinners, or under specialist care, ask an HPCSA-registered clinician before you use an unregistered supplement. Call 10177 for an ambulance, or 112 from a mobile phone.