Compounds › Verified against primary sources

Nootropics

32 with human evidence, 12 with no trial at all — and four counts that were inflated

Partially approvedVerified against primary sources

Experimental material. Read before using anything from here.

Nothing on this page is a medical recommendation, prescription or treatment plan. It is an organized translation of protocols circulating in research communities and, where it exists, of what published trials tested. The two are marked differently — and they are not equivalent.

Most of the compounds here have no FDA approval for human use. Several are sold labeled "research use only", which means they have not gone through purity, sterility or dosage controls for human consumption. A community-reported dose is not a validated dose: it is what someone reported having done.

Talk to a licensed health professional before considering any of these compounds. If you already use one and feel anything unexpected, seek care — do not wait for the next routine test.

Specific caution for this compound: Three items are prescription drugs and appear without dosing: modafinil, tianeptine and adrafinil. Tianeptine has 204 articles on abuse and poisoning, including a 2025 systematic review on non-medical use. Vinpocetine, sold as a supplement, has a May 2026 study pointing to developmental toxicity. Eight items on this page are in WADA section S6.A, prohibited in competition — including phenylpiracetam, which appears there under the name fonturacetam.

Summary

Forty-four nootropics that did not appear on this site, surveyed one by one on PubMed on September 4, 2026. Thirty-two have a randomized trial or meta-analysis; twelve have nothing, and are still being sold. Modafinil leads with 425 trials, saffron follows with 173, and noopept — among the most cited on forums — has 115 articles and zero trials. Unlike the rest of the site, the dose range here did not come from a label: it was extracted from the abstracts of the trials themselves.

How to read this page

Thirty-two nootropics with human evidence, plus twelve the community uses that have no trial at all. None of them repeats what is already on the other pages: piracetam, phenylpiracetam, picamilon, Cortexin, Cerebrolysin, Semax, Selank, alpha-GPC, citicoline, L-theanine, bacopa, rhodiola, ginkgo and lion's mane already have their own place on this site.

The RCT/meta column is the number of randomized trials and meta-analyses indexed on PubMed, checked item by item on September 4, 2026. The study range column is not a label dose or a forum dose: it is the dose that appeared in the abstracts of the cited trials, carried over from there.

The order is by amount of evidence, not by how well it works. Those are different things, and the whole page exists to keep that in plain view.

Four counts were inflated

L-tyrosine showed up with 199 trials. Restricting the query to tyrosine supplementation and tyrosine administration, 14 remain. The other 185 are biochemistry of tyrosine as an amino acid, not supplementation.
Uridine showed up with 62. Restricted, it drops to 6 — and on opening the abstracts, what exists is antiretroviral-induced lipoatrophy and chemotherapy with tegafur-uracil. Nothing on cognition.
Forskolin showed up with 30. Restricted to Coleus forskohlii extract, 5 remain. The rest is forskolin as a laboratory reagent to activate adenylate cyclase — nothing to do with taking a capsule.
Agmatine showed up with 9. Restricted to psychiatric or cognitive use: zero.

Tier A — substantial human evidence

Thirty or more randomized trials and meta-analyses. High volume means many people studied it — not that the result was favorable.

Feature	Study range	For what	RCT/meta	Caveat
Modafinil	not published here	Wakefulness, attention, fatigue	425	Prescription drug. In healthy volunteers the base is much smaller: 53 articles and 27 trials. Prohibited by WADA in competition
Saffron (Crocus sativus)	20–100 mg/day; 30 mg/day is the most repeated	Depression, mood, ADHD	173	The best evidence-to-risk ratio in this table. The extract is expensive and adulteration is common — saffron is one of the most counterfeited spices in the world
Nicotine (outside cigarettes)	7 mg/24 h transdermal in the trials in non-smokers	Attention, working memory	155	Dependence. The cognitive effect is real and small; the cost is a substance that creates physical dependence. Not an item for casual use
Pycnogenol	75–200 mg/day	Cognition, circulation, skin	92	Patented maritime pine bark extract. Much of the trials are funded by the brand owner
Tianeptine	not published here	Depression, mood	55	Prescription drug, and the most dangerous item on this page. See the safety section below
Gotu kola (Centella asiatica)	60 mg 2×/day to 1,200 mg/day, depending on the extract	Anxiety, cognition, wound healing, circulation	52	The standardized extracts (ECa 233, TTFCA) are not interchangeable with the bulk herb, and doses do not transfer between them
Melissa officinalis	700–1,000 mg/day	Anxiety, sleep, mood	48	Sedative. Much of the trials are in anxiety with associated depression, not in healthy people
Taurine	1–3 g/day; 2–4 g as a single dose before exertion	Performance, cognition, cardiovascular	48	Very safe. The isolated cognitive effect is the least demonstrated — the strong base is cardiometabolic
Benfotiamine	300–900 mg/day	Diabetic neuropathy, glucose metabolism	37	Fat-soluble thiamine. A 24-month trial with 300 mg/day showed no effect on peripheral nerve function — the volume did not settle the question
Vinpocetine	10 mg 3×/day; 30–60 mg/day in the trials	Cerebral blood flow, memory	36	Developmental toxicity signal — see the safety section. Sold as a supplement, which makes the finding more serious, not less
Caffeine + L-theanine	40 mg + 97 mg; 50 mg + 100 mg; up to 150 mg + 250 mg	Sustained attention, reduced agitation	31	The evidence is for the combination, with low-dose caffeine. Adding 200 mg of caffeine and calling it the same thing is not what was tested

Tier B — the evidence exists, but it is thin

From 3 to 29 trials. This is where most of what is sold as a nootropic lives: a real base, small, and almost always in disease, not in healthy people.

Feature	Study range	For what	RCT/meta	Caveat
Sage (S. officinalis, S. lavandulaefolia)	330 mg/day; 500 mg every 8 h	Memory, mood, menopause symptoms	29	Restricting the query to cognitive outcomes, 7 trials remain. The two species are not the same thing
Huperzine A	200–400 mcg 2×/day	Alzheimer's, memory	23	The multicenter trial of 210 people failed on the primary outcome at 200 mcg 2×/day. It is a genuine acetylcholinesterase inhibitor — do not combine with donepezil and the like
Oxiracetam	800 mg 2×/day; up to 2,400 mg/day	Vascular dementia, memory	22	The racetam with the most trials after piracetam. No registration — but, contrary to what this page used to say, piracetam has one: NOOTROPIL, active registration expiring in August 2036. It is the only one in the family that legally exists in Brazil
Eleuthero (Eleutherococcus senticosus)	300–1,200 mg/day of the extract	Fatigue, performance, adaptogen	19	Not ginseng, despite the nickname "Siberian ginseng". Much of the trials use a combined formula, not the isolated extract
DMAE / deanol	1,000 mg/day (deanol); 100–200 mg (meclofenoxate)	Mood, attention	16	The literature mixes deanol and meclofenoxate, which are not the same molecule. Much of the trials date from the 1970s and 1980s
L-tyrosine	2 g as a single dose; 100–150 mg/kg/day	Cognition under stress, cold, sleep deprivation	14	The effect appears under stress or depletion, not at rest. Under comfortable conditions, the trials show no gain
Schisandra chinensis	1,000 mg/day of the extract	Fatigue, liver, adaptogen	13	Almost always studied within combined formulas (ADAPT-232), which prevents attributing the effect to it
Reishi (Ganoderma lucidum)	1.44–6 g/day; Ganopoly 1,800 mg 3×/day	Fatigue, sleep, immunity	13	The raw count is 29; restricted to human outcomes, 13. May potentiate anticoagulants
Cordyceps	1 g acute; 6 g/day in the long protocols	Aerobic performance, fatigue	12	The raw count is 46; restricted to exercise or fatigue outcomes, 12. Wild C. sinensis and cultivated C. militaris do not have the same composition
Aniracetam	1 g/day; 200 mg 2×/day	Memory, dementia, anxiety	12	The trials are in dementia, from the 1990s. None in healthy people. Short half-life
Centrophenoxine / meclofenoxate	200 mg up to 2 g/day	Cognition in aging	10	One of the trials used 2 g/day for 8 weeks. It is cholinergic and shares its literature with DMAE
Mucuna pruriens	15–30 g of the powder	Parkinson's (natural source of levodopa)	8	It is levodopa. Not a routine nootropic: the trials compare mucuna with levodopa/carbidopa in advanced Parkinson's. Serious interaction with MAOIs and antipsychotics
Oxaloacetate	500 mg 2×/day to 1,000 mg 3×/day	Fatigue in ME/CFS and long COVID	8	The largest study is open-label and non-randomized, done by the manufacturer. A base that is promising and fragile at the same time
Bromantane (Ladasten)	50–100 mg/day; 15 mg as a single dose	Asthenia, fatigue, anxiety	6	Prohibited by WADA. All the literature is Russian and from the developer itself
PQQ	20–21.5 mg/day	Sleep, fatigue, mitochondrial biogenesis	6	The raw count is 12; restricted to human outcomes, 6. Much of the remaining literature is in broiler chickens
Sulbutiamine	400–600 mg/day	Post-infectious fatigue, psychobehavioral inhibition	5	The largest trial, with 326 patients, did not separate the doses from placebo on the primary outcome. Reports of tolerance with continuous use
Forskolin (Coleus forskohlii)	250 mg of 10% extract, 2×/day; 10 mg/day in asthma	Body composition, asthma, intraocular pressure	5	The raw count of 30 was an artifact: forskolin is a standard laboratory reagent. The body composition trials use a combined formula
Pramiracetam	400 mg 3×/day; 600 mg 2×/day	Memory, TBI	4	Four trials, one of them concluding that up to 4,000 mg is unlikely to bring benefit in Alzheimer's
Nefiracetam	600–900 mg/day	Post-stroke apathy and depression	3	Honest curiosity: the effect appeared at 900 mg and not at 600 mg. Development halted after an animal toxicity finding
Polygala tenuifolia	300 mg/day (BT-11 extract)	Memory, cognition	3	Practically all the human evidence comes from a single standardized Korean extract
Uridine monophosphate	not surveyed	Synapse and choline claim	6	I opened all six: they are antiretroviral-induced lipoatrophy and chemotherapy with tegafur-uracil. None is about cognition. The dose was not published here because there is no cognitive trial to take it from

Tier C — what the community uses with nothing behind it

Twelve compounds with zero or one randomized trial. There is no dose here, and it is not an omission: there is no trial to carry a number over from. What circulates on forums is extrapolation from animal studies, when a study exists at all.

The Query column gives the exact term that produced the number next to it. Paste it into PubMed and the result has to be the same — if it is not, the number here is stale, and what counts is what the database returns to you. The RCT/meta column is the same query plus the filter Randomized Controlled Trial[Publication Type] OR Meta-Analysis[Publication Type].

Look at agmatine: 1,934 articles and no randomized trial. The high count is basic neuroscience of the imidazoline receptor, not evidence of use. It is this page's best example of why volume of literature is not the same as a clinical base — and now it can be checked, because the query is right there.

Feature	What it is	PubMed query	Articles in PubMed	RCT/meta	What actually exists
Noopept (omberacetam)	Russian dipeptide, cycloprolylglycine analogue	`noopept OR omberacetam`	108	0	115 articles and no indexed randomized trial. It is the most disproportionate case between fame and evidence on this page
Agmatine	Arginine metabolite	`agmatine`	1934	9	The high count is basic neuroscience of the imidazoline receptor. Restricted to psychiatric or cognitive use: zero
Celastrus paniculatus	Seed oil from Ayurvedic medicine	`"Celastrus paniculatus"`	73	0	All the literature is preclinical, in rats
Shankhpushpi Convolvulus prostratus	Ayurvedic herb for memory	`shankhpushpi OR "Convolvulus prostratus"`	41	0	Same case. And the trade name covers at least four different botanical species
IDRA-21	Ampakine, AMPA modulator	`"IDRA-21"`	26	0	Primate and rodent literature. Never entered a human trial
Dihexa	Peptide derived from angiotensin IV	`dihexa`	18	0	Eighteen articles, all preclinical. Sold as if it were a finished product
9-Me-BC	9-methyl-beta-carboline	`"9-methyl-beta-carboline" OR "9-Me-BC"`	14	0	Cell culture and rodents only. It is also an MAO inhibitor — the interaction risk is real and untested in humans
Fasoracetam	Racetam, mGluR agonist	`fasoracetam`	5	0	Five articles in total. Reached the clinical phase in ADHD with a genetic variant, with no indexed published result
Coluracetam	Racetam, high-affinity choline uptake	`coluracetam`	1	0	One article. It is the lowest number in this entire reference
NSI-189	Neurogenic molecule	`"NSI-189"`	14	1	One trial. The development program in depression did not advance
Adrafinil	Prodrug of modafinil	`adrafinil`	43	1	Turns into modafinil in the liver — it carries the effect and the hepatotoxicity of the conversion, with less predictability than modafinil itself, which is a prescription drug. It is nominally in WADA's S6.A, by its own name and not for being a prodrug
PRL-8-53	Compound from 1978	`"PRL-8-53"`	1	1	There is a single article, and it is the same 1978 study the internet has been citing for decades. It was never replicated

Three findings the count alone hides

1. Armodafinil has no count of its own. PubMed expands the search for armodafinil to the MeSH term modafinil: the query returns 2,437 against 2,411 for modafinil — almost the same set of articles. Restricted to title and abstract, armodafinil has 260 and modafinil has 2,150. It is the same trap as Ovagen and cocarboxylase, in another family.

2. Tianeptine has more harm literature than most have efficacy literature. There are 204 articles crossing the compound with abuse, dependence, poisoning or withdrawal. Indexed titles from 2025 include "Gas station heroin — tianeptine and its impact: a systematic review and exploratory analysis" and "Tianeptine Exposures Reported to United States Poison Centers, 2015-2023". It is a mu-opioid receptor agonist at high doses, which explains the pattern.

3. Vinpocetine shows a developmental toxicity signal. Article from May 2026: "Developmental Toxicity Evaluation of the Dietary Supplement Vinpocetine Using Mouse and Human 3D Gastruloids". The aggravating factor is in the title itself — it is sold as a dietary supplement, without the warning a drug would carry.

The three prescription-only items

Modafinil, tianeptine and adrafinil appear without dosing, by the same decision taken on the prescription-only items page: they are prescription drugs, and publishing a prescription dose outside a prescription is not informing, it is facilitating.
Nicotine outside the cigarette is the borderline case. Patches and gum are sold over the counter in Brazil and the trial dose is published above, because it is the same as the package insert's. What does not change is that it creates physical dependence.
Eight items on this page are on the WADA list, checked against the official source on September 4, 2026. All in section S6.A, non-specified stimulants, prohibited in competition only, and cited there by their own name: Modafinil, Adrafinil, Bromantan, Fonturacetam [4-phenylpiracetam (carphedon)], Hydrafinil (fluorenol), Fladrafinil, Flmodafinil and Lisdexamfetamine. Anyone facing anti-doping testing should note that phenylpiracetam appears there under the name fonturacetam — searching by the forum name finds nothing. Meldonium is more restricted and sits in another section: S4.4.3, prohibited at all times.
Vinpocetine and bromantane are not prescription-only here, but neither has registration. They circulate through importation, with no batch control and no package insert in Portuguese.

What was left out

I read abstracts, not full articles — except for the six on uridine and the tianeptine and vinpocetine titles cited above, which I opened to check.
Count is not quality. The same limitation declared on the other pages applies here: a high number can be many small, poorly done trials.
I did not check the regulatory status item by item. Where I state absence of registration, it is for the racetams, bromantane and vinpocetine, which are openly imported products.
There is no ClinicalTrials.gov record on this page. The survey was of published literature; ongoing trials were not included.

References

This page did not come from the secondary source. Every number was collected by me from the sources listed below, on September 4, 2026, and the query used is stated above.

← Back to all compounds