Longevity & Cellular Health

Balenine

Balenine is the third of the histidine dipeptides, alongside carnosine and anserine, and it was isolated in 1965 from whale-meat extract: it is abundant in whale muscle and in pig muscle, and scarce almost everywhere else. It shares its relatives' chemistry, buffering acid inside the cell and scavenging radicals, and a 2026 mouse study found it reduced neurodegeneration and inflammation in a Parkinson's disease model. Its whole published literature runs to thirty-one papers, which makes it one of the least-examined compounds here. No person has been given it in any study on file, so that mouse result stands as a question rather than a finding.

Last updated 12 August 2026

Studied forAntioxidant research · Muscle regeneration research · Anti-fatigue context

Evidence on file3 animal studies · 1 in-vitro study · 1 citation not yet graded

Strongest sourceIdentification of acryloyl-histidine-related components from heat-denatured imidazole dipeptides and heated m… (animal study)

Mechanism

Acts as an intracellular pH buffer and radical scavenger, and raises superoxide dismutase activity in myotubes.

Reported effects

What sources associate with this compound. Reported categories, not outcomes we have graded — each would need its own citation and rung.

Antioxidant research
Muscle regeneration research
Anti-fatigue context

Dosing on file unverified

No established human dose; supplement only

Carried from a source that labels it unverified, and reproduced with that label attached. A record of what is reported, not a recommendation. No citation on this page establishes it.

Literature on file 6

review or editorial
Anserine, Balenine, and Ergothioneine: Impact of Histidine-Containing Compounds on Exercise Performance-A Narrative Review. graded on: indexed as "review-article" - secondary literature, not a study — “review-article”
animal in vivo
Identification of acryloyl-histidine-related components from heat-denatured imidazole dipeptides and heated meats. graded on: an animal model — read from the indexed abstract — “swine”
animal in vivo
Balenine alleviates neurodegeneration and inflammation in a mouse model of Parkinson's disease. graded on: an animal model — “mouse”
animal in vivo
Rapid separation and quantification of imidazole dipeptides in meats using a PBr column packed with 3-(pentabromobenzyloxy)propyl group modified silica gel. graded on: an animal model — read from the indexed abstract — “swine”
in vitro
Serum Concentrations of Imidazole Dipeptides and Serum Amyloid A in a Bottlenose Dolphin (Tursiops truncatus) with Rhabdomyolysis: Potential Biomarkers for Muscular Damage. graded on: an in-vitro system — read from the indexed abstract — “assay”

Not graded

1 citation whose study design could not be read from the title. Left ungraded rather than guessed at.

not graded
Isolation and synthesis of balenine, a dipeptide occurring in whale-meat extract (1965, cited 11x)

Identity

Space-filling 3D model of Balenine, carbon grey, nitrogen blue, oxygen red — Built from the SMILES on this record — the atoms and bonds are exact. The shape is **one computed low-energy pose**, not a measured structure: a flexible peptide in solution has no single conformation, and where the SMILES leaves a stereocentre undefined the pose commits to one arbitrarily. The skeletal formula below claims connectivity and nothing more, which is what we actually know.

2D chemical structure of Balenine — Built from the SMILES on this record — the atoms and bonds are exact. The shape is **one computed low-energy pose**, not a measured structure: a flexible peptide in solution has no single conformation, and where the SMILES leaves a stereocentre undefined the pose commits to one arbitrarily. The skeletal formula below claims connectivity and nothing more, which is what we actually know.

Molecular weight: 240.26
Molecular formula: C10H16N4O3
CAS number: 331-38-4
PubChem CID: 10198648
InChI key: SLRNWACWRVGMKD-QMMMGPOBSA-N
SMILES: CN1C=C(N=C1)C[C@@H](C(=O)O)NC(=O)CCN
InChI: InChI=1S/C10H16N4O3/c1-14-5-7(12-6-14)4-8(10(16)17)13-9(15)2-3-11/h5-6,8H,2-4,11H2,1H3,(H,13,15)(H,16,17)/t8-/m0/s1

Notes unverified prose

Preclinical; no human clinical trials identified; no human clinical trials

Not on file 2

1 of the 8 fields we track hold nothing on this record, and each says why. 1 further absence is named below. A blank field is a bug; a named absence is a finding.

amino-acid sequencenot applicable to this compound
half-lifenothing we hold supplies it

Each field links to every other record missing the same thing. The full ledger holds 765 gaps across 163 records.