What is NMN?

NMN (nicotinamide mononucleotide) is a compound the body makes itself, and it is found in small amounts in foods such as broccoli, cabbage, cucumber and edamame. As a supplement it is sold as capsules or powder. In Great Britain it is classed as a novel food with an application being assessed by the Food Standards Agency, and it has no authorised health claims.

NMN at a glance

Question Answer
Full name Nicotinamide mononucleotide, usually sold as β-NMN
What kind of compound A nucleotide, made in the body as part of normal cell chemistry
Found in food Small amounts in broccoli, cabbage, cucumber and edamame
Supplement doses in human trials 250 to 2,000mg a day (Yang and colleagues, Nutrients, 2026)
Status in Great Britain Novel food, application under FSA assessment
Status in the EU EFSA safety opinion, 2026: safe for adults at up to 300mg a day, excluding pregnant and breastfeeding women
Authorised health claims None in Great Britain

NMN in food

NMN occurs naturally in vegetables such as broccoli, cabbage, cucumber and edamame, but only in small amounts, far below the doses used in supplement trials. You cannot realistically eat your way to a supplement dose, which is why it is sold in concentrated form.

NMN, NR and niacin: how they differ

What it is In Great Britain
NMN Nicotinamide mononucleotide Novel food under FSA assessment, no authorised claims
NR Nicotinamide riboside, a related but different compound Sold for the same reasons as NMN
Niacin (vitamin B3) Nicotinic acid and nicotinamide An authorised vitamin with its own authorised claims

NMN is not an authorised form of niacin in Great Britain, so niacin's claims do not apply to it. I would not take NMN and NR together: they are sold for the same reason, so taking both mostly doubles the cost.

Human trials of NMN

These are the studies I have read in full or in abstract, with what they looked at on safety. I list them so you can read them yourself, not to tell you what NMN does.

I keep a full list of every published human trial, with the dose and what each one measured, in our NMN clinical trials tracker.

Study People and dose Safety finding
Fukamizu and colleagues, Scientific Reports, 2022 31 adults aged 20 to 65, 1,250mg a day for up to 4 weeks No severe adverse events
Yi and colleagues, GeroScience, 2023 80 adults aged 40 to 65, 300 to 900mg a day for 60 days No safety issues found
Yang and colleagues, Nutrients, 2026 Review of 10 controlled trials, 250 to 2,000mg a day No increase in adverse events or liver enzymes
EFSA scientific opinion, 2026 Adults, up to 300mg a day assessed Safe under the proposed conditions, excluding pregnant and breastfeeding women

The full list of published NMN trials is searchable on PubMed. Read the methods as well as the headline: most trials are small, short, and several involve companies that make NMN.

Where to go next