Comment · Wed, February 17, 2021 · Natrium Health & Nootropics Depot
Use caution with Science.Bio's semax spray
Original post in this thread
elf_monster · 61 points
Hi everyone, just wanted to point out that Science.Bio's semax spray contains a preservative known to be neurotoxic as well as irritant to many other tissue types, including nasal mucosa and other epithelial tissue (actually responsible for the death of nasal epithelial cells). Benzalkonium chloride is the ingredient in question, and it's likely one of the main reasons the brand's semax spray is so irritating for many people. It also contains acetate, but I don't know much about that, so if anyone has info to share on its tolerability please feel free to add any info in the comments.
Semax is a great nootropic, but the commercially-available options may not always be ideal, and in some cases may contribute to damaging tissue and even the nervous system. Use caution and remember to use all possible means of verifying the safety of your purchases.
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\[Just a note: I love Science.Bio, but I'll be damned if I wasn't disappointed to discover their use of a known toxicant in their materials.\]
What they were answering
johnnycoconut · 9 points
/u/MisterYouAreSoDumb since you did nasal sprays with Ceretropic, I wonder what are your thoughts on the whole preservative/preventing microbe growth thing? I would be curious regardless of which vendor happened to be mentioned in the title, since as noted in the thread the use of benzalkonium chloride in nasal sprays is common.
u/MisterYouAreSoDumb · Natrium Health & Nootropics Depot
You are going to want an antimicrobial in nasal sprays. Not using one is just asking for a bad time. If microbes grow in the spray, you will be spraying them right where they could potentially get past your blood brain barrier. That would be no bueno. Ever hear of those stories where people suddenly die of an amoeba getting into their brain after diving into a lake? You don't want that shit. Antimicrobials are a necessary thing in nasal sprays. Most antimicrobials can be bad in high doses. That's kind of by design. They are antimicrobials, after all...
Benzalkonium chloride is fine at low doses used in sprays. I don't know what concentration Science.bio uses, but I would imagine it is not a lot. No reason to use more than you need to. We used methylparaben on our Ceretropic sprays. That's also what the Russians used in the Semax and Selank nasal drops, which is why we went that direction. Some people freaked out over "parabens" being in our sprays, but it's better than getting E coli in the brain. We used UV treated 18 megaohm DI water, which is about as pure as it gets. So microbial growth would be difficult in it. However, an antimicrobial is a good thing to have in there just in case.