Onboarding · Primer
Peptide research 101.
A single-page primer covering the eight things you should know before opening a vial: what research-grade material is, what HPLC measures, what a COA tells you, why batches matter, what reconstitution and storage involve, and the vocabulary you will see on every product page.
1. The category
What is research-grade?
“Research-grade” is a sourcing and labelling category. It means the material is intended for laboratory study, not human consumption. The compound is synthesised, purified and supplied with documentation that lets a researcher verify what they received. There are no fillers, no flavours, no dosage instructions on the vial.
What it is not: a medicine. Research-grade material has not been through clinical trials, has not been registered with the European Medicines Agency, and is not approved for any therapeutic claim. The same molecule may exist in a regulated medicine elsewhere (Tirzepatide, for example, ships as Mounjaro/Zepbound for diabetes and obesity in approved markets) — that does not change the legal status of the research-grade vial in your hand.
2. The purity test
What HPLC means.
HPLC stands for High-Performance Liquid Chromatography. It is the standard analytical method for measuring the purity of a peptide. A small amount of the compound is dissolved, pushed through a separating column, and the components that come out the other side are counted by a detector.
The result is a percentage: HPLC purity 99.1 % means that of all the molecules detected, 99.1 % were the intended peptide and 0.9 % were something else (synthesis side-products, residual solvents, fragments). Reputable suppliers print this number on the COA along with the chromatogram — the picture of the peaks that the detector saw.
What to look for: area-percent (the standard reporting basis), the column type, and the date of the test. A purity number without a chromatogram and a date is a marketing claim, not a measurement.
3. The certificate
What a COA tells you.
A COA — Certificate of Analysis — is the lab's signed statement of what the batch is. A typical COA covers:
- Compound name and CAS number, the unambiguous chemical identifier.
- Batch / lot number, tied to the specific synthesis run.
- Manufacture date and recommended retest date.
- Appearance, e.g. white lyophilized powder.
- HPLC purity with chromatogram.
- Mass spectrometry result confirming the molecular weight matches the expected structure.
- Water content (typically by Karl-Fischer titration).
- Acetate content (residual from the synthesis salt).
- Bacterial endotoxins if the supplier tests for it.
If a field is missing, ask. A COA that does not name the lab, the batch, or the date is paperwork, not documentation. The First COA guide walks through every field on a sample certificate.
4. The provenance
Why batch-specific matters.
A peptide is not a fixed product like a screw or a USB cable; it is the output of a synthesis. Two batches of the same compound from the same lab can differ in purity, in side-product profile and in residual solvent levels. A COA dated 2024-08 and labelled Batch BPC0824-A describes the vials from that run. It does not describe the run that came before or after.
This is why we ship a COA for the batch you actually receive, not a generic certificate from a warehouse pool. It is also why the “fresh batch” lead time exists: the batch is synthesised after your order, and the COA is generated for that synthesis. More on fresh batch →
5. The vial
What reconstitution means.
Peptides ship as a lyophilized (freeze-dried) powder for stability. To use them in a study they have to be put back into solution — that is reconstitution. The standard solvent is bacteriostatic water (water with a small percentage of benzyl alcohol that suppresses bacterial growth in a multi-use vial).
The amount of water you add determines the concentration. If a 5 mg vial is reconstituted with 2 mL of bacteriostatic water, the concentration is 2.5 mg/mL, or 2500 mcg/mL. The maths is the same for every compound; the reconstitution calculator does it for you.
Reconstitution is a property of the material; this guide does not recommend any human dose. Published research protocols specify their own concentrations; researchers reproducing those protocols replicate that concentration.
6. The freezer
Storage basics.
Storage rules are stability rules. They are about keeping the molecule intact, not about clinical practice. The general pattern:
- Lyophilized, unopened: long-term storage at −20 °C, away from light. Most peptides are stable in this state for two years or more.
- Lyophilized, in transit: short excursions to room temperature are tolerated — lyophilized material is robust. We still ship cold-chain to keep the margin wide.
- Reconstituted, refrigerated: typical stability is two to four weeks at 2–8 °C, depending on the compound. The bacteriostatic agent suppresses microbial growth but does not prevent chemical degradation.
- Avoid: repeated freeze-thaw cycles of reconstituted solution, direct sunlight, room-temperature storage of mixed material.
The storage guide has compound-specific notes.
7. The vocabulary
Terminology you will see on every page.
- Peptide
- A short chain of amino acids, typically two to fifty residues. Smaller than a protein, larger than a single amino acid.
- Lyophilized (lyo)
- Freeze-dried. The water is removed under vacuum from the frozen state, leaving a stable cake or powder.
- HPLC
- High-Performance Liquid Chromatography. The standard purity test for peptides.
- COA
- Certificate of Analysis. The signed batch document.
- CAS number
- Chemical Abstracts Service registry number. The unambiguous identifier for a chemical compound.
- MW
- Molecular weight, in daltons. Determines the mass of one mole of the compound.
- Half-life
- The time required for the concentration of the compound in a system to decrease by half. A property reported in the literature.
- Reconstitution
- Dissolving a lyophilized peptide back into solution before use.
- Bacteriostatic water
- Water containing a low percentage of benzyl alcohol (typically 0.9 %) used as the standard solvent for reconstitution.
- Subcutaneous (SC)
- Beneath the skin. A common route of administration in published protocols.
- Intramuscular (IM)
- Into the muscle. The other common route.
- Agonist
- A molecule that binds a receptor and activates it.
- Antagonist
- A molecule that binds a receptor and blocks activation.
- Receptor
- The protein on or inside a cell that the peptide binds.
- Pharmacokinetics
- What the body does to the compound: absorption, distribution, metabolism, elimination.
- Pharmacodynamics
- What the compound does to the body: receptor binding, downstream signalling, observed effect.
- rINN
- Recommended International Non-proprietary Name. The WHO-assigned generic name for a compound.
- Endogenous
- Produced inside the organism. Many peptides studied in research are synthetic analogues of endogenous signalling molecules.
- Exogenous
- Introduced from outside the organism — the supplied research compound is exogenous.
More terms in the full glossary.
8. Next steps
Comfortable with the basics?
Read the research-frame language guide for vocabulary, the first COA guide for a real document walkthrough, or open the catalog directly.