History of Melatonin Discovery
Melatonin was first extracted and discovered from the pineal gland of cow by the dermatologist Aron B Lerner at the Yale University of School of Medicine. This purified product was chemically identified as N-acetyl-5-methoxy-tryptamine and is termed as Melatonin. One of the characteristic of the chemical is that it is mainly secreted during darkness and hence it is also known as hormone of darkness 1 . In the subsequent years melatonin has also been identified in many plants and a wide variety of animals. Presence of melatonin in a wide variety of bacteria gives an emphasis that this chemical is an ancient molecule that has been retained throughout the evolutionary process of all organisms. Primitive bacteria like cyanobacteria and α-proteobacteria are thought to be engulfed by the prokaryotes and they evolved into chloroplasts and mitochondria so that all the unicellular and multicellular organelles produce this indolamine into their organelles. With the evolutionary process the...