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For informational purposes only. Always consult a qualified medical professional before taking any supplement, herb, vitamin, mineral, or bioactive, especially if you use medications or have a medical condition. Read the full disclaimer.
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PromisingReviewed

Additional Bioactives

Melatonin

Other food compounds and specialty ingredients worth tracking as the evidence model grows.

Page last reviewed: 2026-07-23 - next review due: 2027-01-23

circadian biologysleep

Safety Flags

children, pregnancy/breastfeeding, epilepsy, blood thinners, dementia, daytime drowsiness

Source Coverage

Included: US reference
Review gap: Canadian reference
Add or verify Health Canada context where an official Canadian reference exists.
Review gap: EU reference
Add or verify EFSA or EU health-claim context where an official EU reference exists.
Included: Clinical / safety source

Function

Hormone involved in circadian timing and darkness signaling; supplemental melatonin is studied for jet lag, delayed sleep-wake phase disorder, and selected sleep contexts.

Natural Sources

Produced by the pineal gland in response to darkness, small variable amounts in tart cherries, walnuts, pistachios, grapes, and some grains.

Food vs Supplement Context

Natural sources describe where this item appears in foods, culinary ingredients, or traditional preparations. Concentrated supplements can differ by dose, extract type, preparation, standardization, and medication context, so they should be evaluated separately.

Testing & Monitoring Context

  • No routine lab test establishes a required daily need for most foods and bioactives; monitoring is usually based on the intended outcome, dose, medical history, and adverse effects.
  • Blood thinner or bleeding-risk context: ask a clinician or pharmacist about INR/bleeding monitoring and surgery timing.

Suggested Guidelines When Purchasing

What to look for: For botanicals, plant part, extract ratio, standardization marker, preparation type, and medication cautions matter more than the herb name alone.

Use caution or avoid: Avoid casual use when these flags apply: children, pregnancy/breastfeeding, epilepsy, blood thinners, dementia, daytime drowsiness.

  • Prefer ordinary food sources first when they provide the intended compound in a practical way.
  • For supplements, require clear labeling of active ingredient, dose per serving, serving size, and other ingredients.
  • Prefer products with third-party testing or transparent contaminant testing, especially for concentrated extracts, algae, mushrooms, minerals, and sports products.
  • Do not let marketing claims override the evidence, safety flags, source coverage, or dose context on this page.

Intake Guidance

No official DRI

No official RDA, AI, or RDI has been established for this bioactive as a required daily intake.

Evidence Summary

Circadian timing, jet lag, and delayed sleep-wake phase context

Promising

NCCIH summarizes melatonin as potentially helpful for jet lag and delayed sleep-wake phase disorder, while guidelines do not broadly recommend it for chronic insomnia.

Dose context: Timing is part of the intervention; more is not automatically better and no official RDI exists.

Caution: Long-term safety is not well established; children, pregnancy, epilepsy, blood thinners, dementia, and product-label accuracy need extra caution.

Studies/sources: Melatonin: What You Need To Know (2026-08-03), Sleep Disorders and Complementary Health Approaches: Usefulness and Safety (2026-08-03)

Evidence Legend

Established use: Supported by official guidance, regulatory claim context, strong consensus, or repeated human evidence for a specific use.
Promising: Human studies or reviews suggest benefit for specific outcomes, but evidence is not broad enough to treat as settled general guidance.
Emerging: Early human, mechanistic, or mixed evidence; worth tracking, but not strong enough for confident user-facing claims.
Traditional use: Historically or traditionally used, but modern clinical evidence may be limited, mixed, or product-specific.
Category example: Included to describe a supplement or food category, not because a strong health claim is attached yet.
Note: Supplement products may vary from label amounts; timing, age, pregnancy, epilepsy, blood thinners, dementia, and pediatric storage safety matter.

Sources