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Pyroglutamate (PCA)
Pyroglutamate (also called 2-oxo-pyrrolidone carboxylic acid, or PCA) is an amino acid naturally occurring in vegetables, fruits, dairy products, and meat, and seems to be an important flavor constituent in these foods. It is also normally present in large amounts in the human brain, cerebrospinal fluid, and blood. Pyroglutamate is known to have a number of remarkable cognitive-enhancement effects.
After oral administration, pyroglutamate passes into the brain through the blood-brain barrier and stimulates cognitive functions. Pyroglutamate improves memory and learning in rats, and has anti-anxiety effects in rats .
Pyroglutamate has also shown to be effective on alcohol induced memory deficits in humans and, more recently, in people affected with multi-infarctual dementia. In these patients, the administration of pyroglutamate brought about a significant increase of attention and an improvement on psychological tests investigating short term retrieval (STR), long term retrieval (LTR) and long term storage (LTS) of memory. A statistically significant improvement was observed also in the consolidation of memory.
In human subjects, pyroglutamate was compared with placebo in a randomized double-blind trial for assessing its efficacy in treating memory deficits in 40 aged subjects. Twenty subjects were treated with pyroglutamate and 20 with placebo over a period of 60 days. Memory functions were evaluated at baseline and after 60 days of treatment by means of a battery made up of six memory tasks. The results show that pyroglutamate is effective in improving verbal memory functions in subjects affected by age related memory decline.
In Italy, arginine pyroglutamate (one source of pyroglutamate) is used to treat senility, mental retardation, and alcoholism. Arginine pyroglutamate is simply an arginine molecule combined with a pyroglutamate molecule. Arginine alone does not produce cognitive enhancement effects. It is likely that pyroglutamate is the active ingredient of arginine pyroglutamate.
Some people use arginine, a single amino acid, to build muscle bulk and to burn fat because the arginine causes the pituitary gland to release natural growth hormone. Arginine pyroglutamate, in addition to having cognitive enhancement effects, is an excellent growth hormone releaser because it is carried more efficiently across the blood-brain barrier than arginine alone.
Many people have told us that they like the effects of arginine pyroglutamate a great deal. Some of the more interesting anecdotes are listed below.
Precautions: No serious adverse effects from the use of pyroglutamate, or from the use of arginine pyroglutamate, have been reported. Arginine and pyroglutamate are amino acids found commonly in natural foods and consumed by most people on a regular basis.
Dosage: 500 mg to 1000 mg per day for arginine pyroglutamate or somewhat less if you are using straight pyroglutamate.
Sources: Health food and vitamin stores offer various products containing pyroglutamate. Arginine pyroglutamate (one source of pyroglutamate) is often bought for its growth hormone releasing effect, but is still effective as a cognitive enhancer in this form. Source Naturals has a good pyroglutamate product. Other names for pyroglutamate include: alpha-aminoglutaric acid lactam, glutamic acid lactam, glutimic acid, glutiminic acid, pyroGlu, and pyroglutamic acid. Other names for arginine pyroglutamate include: Adjuvant, Piraglutargine, Arginine Pidolate.