Melanotan 1 vs 2
Melanotan 1 and Melanotan 2 are peptides used for skin tanning. There are many across the world who like to have beautifully tanned body and yet do not like the idea of covering themselves with sun tan crèmes and then lying under the sun for hours to achieve the results. For such people, Melanotan and Melanotan II have come as a boon as these peptides, when injected in the body of a fair skinned person result in skin tanning without any exposure to sun. As such Melanotan appears to be a wonder beauty product though it is not an FDA approved product and also there are long term possible health problems associated with the use of these peptides. Nevertheless, there are a huge number of people willing to use Melanotan and Melanotan II without knowing the difference between the two.
Melanotan was developed in the University of Arizona way back in 1981 and the news was very exciting that a new wonder tanning drug has been invented. Melanotan is actually a synthetic hormone that mimics the action of MSH or melanocyte stimulating hormone. Melanotan II is another analog of melanocyte stimulating hormone developed at the same University. Both MT and MT II are said to produce the effect of naturally produced melanocyte within pituitary gland in our bodies.
While Melanotan is a straight, full length peptide, Melanotan II is a shortened, circular version of the afamelanotide peptide. While both Melanotan and Melanotan II have a tanning effect, there are some more side effects reported by users of MT II. Libido enhancement and spontaneous erections are surprising side effects of MT II that have been reported by the users.
MT causes tanning without any side effects and hence it is considered to better of the two peptides. But because the amino acid sequence is shorter in MT II, there are more MT II peptide chains available as compared to MT. Another major difference between MT and MT II is that MT II is cheaper than MT and this lures people to go for it rather than MT.