We buy our NMN powder from the same company that supplied David Sinclair's Harvard research team, so we figure their knowledge is a cut above the newer players.

There are 3 main NMN manufacturing processes. Here they are in order of increasing quality:
- chemical process,
- single step enzymatic process,
- fully enzymatic process.

By far the highest quality NMN is produced using a fully enzymatic process; however, this is much more expensive. Interestingly, some of the largest American online NMN stores also used our supplier, but then our guys moved to a higher quality process and the larger online sellers changed to cheaper manufacturers. At the end of the day, you tend to get what you pay for. Lets take a brief look at the differences between these manufacturing processes, and the quality of the resulting NMN.

Fully Enzymatic Process NMN

Of the three, this produces by far the highest quality stable NMN with no harmful solvent residues, and a typical purity of at least 99.9% (up to 99.99%). Its an environmentally friendly process that uses a multi step purification technology. Independent analysis of our fully enzymatic NMN in USA labs yields a purity of greater than 100% (typically 100.4% or higher); this is due to some quirks in the HPLC system they use to test NMN: so 99.9% can come back as 100.4% from HPLC testing. Bear this in mind when you look at independent analysis results. The fully enzymatic method starts out with inputs from natural sources that do not involve chemical materials.

Single Step Enzymatic Process NMN

This is the next best option and uses a cheaper process. It uses a single step enzymatic process, usually starting out with chemically produced NR (nicotanineamid riboside) as the raw material. The quality is very good but there may be small chemical residues, mostly solvents.

Chemical Process NMN

Produces the lowest quality NMN but is by far the cheapest of the three processes. At LifePowders, we are not even sure its really NMN; this is because there are two types of NMN: α-NMN and β-NMN. The one we want is β-NMN and this is what is produced using the enzymatic processes above. Pure β-NMN cannot reliably be synthesized using the chemical method, and the β-NMN content of chemically produced NMN is low. Byproducts produced by the chemical method are not natural, and these chemical impurities, albeit in trace amounts might accumulate, possibly causing long term harm. In any event, there isn't much point in buying NMN if its not the real deal, and doesn't work.

In Summary

Go for Fully Enzymatic Process NMN if its affordable, and Single Step Enzymatic Process NMN otherwise. Avoid cheap NMN. Find a supplier who is open about the process used to create their NMN. Avoid Chemical Process NMN.