Best Nootropics for Energy & Performance — 2026

**Caffeine** (1,3,7-trimethylxanthine) is a **natural methylxanthine alkaloid** found in the seeds, fruits, leaves, and bark of over 60 plant species — most notably **Coffea** (coffee), **Camellia sinensis** (tea), **Theobroma cacao** (cacao), **Paullinia cupana** (guaraná), **Il…

Modafinil is a prescription wakefulness-promoting agent approved by the US Food and Drug Administration in December 1998 under the brand name Provigil (Cephalon, now Teva) for the treatment of excessive daytime sleepiness associated with narcolepsy, shift work sleep disorder, and…

Bromantane is an atypical psychostimulant and anxiolytic developed in the 1980s at the Zakusov Institute of Pharmacology of the Russian Academy of Medical Sciences, originally created as an adaptogen for Soviet military and elite athletic use and later approved in Russia for the …

Theacrine (1,3,7,9-tetramethyluric acid) is a purine alkaloid structurally related to caffeine, found naturally in Camellia assamica var. kucha — a tea cultivar grown in southern China and northern Vietnam — and in smaller amounts in Cupuaçu (Theobroma grandiflorum) seeds. It sha…

2-Aminoisoheptane (DMHA/Octodrine) is a psychoactive central nervous system stimulant used as a pre-workout and energy-boosting compound.

Creatine is the most-researched nutritional supplement in sports science and has emerged over the past decade as a cornerstone compound in the broader longevity conversation, extending beyond its traditional ergogenic applications into cognitive performance, brain health in aging…

MOTS-c (Mitochondrial ORF of the Twelve S rRNA type-c) is a **16-amino-acid mitochondrial-derived peptide** — a member of a recently discovered class of small peptides encoded in mitochondrial DNA rather than nuclear DNA. It was first characterized and named by [Lee et al. in 201…

SS-31 (elamipretide; MTP-131; formerly Bendavia; chemical sequence D-Arg-Dmt-Lys-Phe-NH2 with dimethyltyrosine at position 2) is a first-in-class aromatic-cationic tetrapeptide designed to selectively target the inner mitochondrial membrane and bind cardiolipin, the signature mit…

BAM15 is a small-molecule mitochondrial protonophore uncoupler that was first described in 2014 as a tool compound for dissipating proton motive force selectively across the inner mitochondrial membrane without collapsing the plasma membrane electrochemical gradient ([Kenwood et …

ITPP (myo-inositol trispyrophosphate, sometimes written **myo-inositol tripyrophosphate** or **OXY111A** in NormOxys trial documents) is a small-molecule **allosteric effector of hemoglobin** designed to increase the amount of oxygen red blood cells release to tissues. It was dev…

Coenzyme Q10 (CoQ10), also known as ubiquinone-10, ubidecarenone, or simply "coenzyme Q," is a lipid-soluble benzoquinone compound with a 50-carbon isoprenoid side chain (decaprenyl tail) that anchors it within the inner mitochondrial membrane. Its name — ubiquinone — reflects it…

L-Carnitine is a naturally occurring quaternary ammonium compound synthesized in the body from the amino acids lysine and methionine, with essential cofactor roles in fatty acid metabolism, energy production, and cellular health. Chemically classified as a conditionally essential…

NAD+ (nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide, oxidized form) is a pyridine dinucleotide coenzyme essential to energy metabolism, DNA repair via PARP enzymes, sirtuin-mediated gene regulation, and calcium signaling via CD38. Intracellular NAD+ declines by roughly 50% between ages 40 an…

Nicotinamide mononucleotide (NMN) is a naturally occurring nucleotide derived from ribose and nicotinamide, serving as the direct biosynthetic precursor to nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide (NAD+) via a single enzymatic step catalyzed by nicotinamide mononucleotide adenylyltransf…

Pyrroloquinoline quinone (PQQ, methoxatin) is a small tricyclic o-quinone originally discovered in 1964 as the prosthetic group of bacterial methanol dehydrogenase. In methylotrophic and methanotrophic bacteria (organisms that live on methane or methanol), PQQ serves as a redox …

**Shilajit** (Sanskrit: *shilajatu*, αñ╢αñ┐αñ▓αñ╛αñ£αññαÑü, literally "rock-conqueror" or "rock-invincible"; Hindi/Urdu: *shilajit*; Persian and Central Asian: *mumijo*, *moomiyo*, *mumiyo*; Pashto/Afghan: *salajeet*; Latin pharmacopeial: *Asphaltum Punjabinum*) is a blackish-bro…

**Cordyceps** is a genus of parasitic fungi (order Hypocreales, family Cordycipitaceae) historically prized in traditional Tibetan, Chinese, and Bhutanese medicine for their purported abilities to restore vitality, improve athletic performance, support respiratory and kidney func…

Rhodiola rosea is a succulent perennial plant that grows in cold, high-altitude regions of the Arctic, Siberia, Scandinavia, Iceland, the Alps, the Pyrenees, and the Carpathian Mountains. Its golden-yellow rhizome has been used for over a thousand years as a tonic against fatigue…

**Eleuthero** (scientific name *Eleutherococcus senticosus*, formerly classified as *Acanthopanax senticosus*; called **ci wu jia** in Chinese, **siberian ginseng** in Western herbalism — though this common name is problematic and technically inaccurate as eleuthero is NOT in the…

Panax ginseng is the canonical Asian adaptogen, the compound that gave "ginseng" its name in the global supplement lexicon, and the most extensively studied herbal medicine in the Asian pharmacopeia. Native to the mountainous forests of northeastern China, the Korean peninsula, a…

**Tongkat Ali** (scientific name *Eurycoma longifolia*; also called **Longjack**, **Malaysian ginseng**, **pasak bumi** in Indonesian/Malay, **tung saw** in Thai, and literally "Ali's walking stick" in Malay — a reference to the remarkably long, straight, single taproot that can …

**Astragalus** (scientific name *Astragalus membranaceus*, also classified as *Astragalus mongholicus* or *Astragalus propinquus*; called **Huang Qi** / Θ╗äΦè¬ in Mandarin Chinese — literally "yellow leader" referring to the yellow interior of the root; known in Western herbalism…