Creatine Monohydrate

Abstract

The word “creatine,” derived from “kreas,” which is Greek for flesh, was first used in 1832 by Chevreul, a French scientist who discovered this substance in meat (Balsom et al., 1994; Feldman, 1999). In 1847, Lieberg confirmed that creatine was a constituent of meat. Lieberg also observed that the meat of wild foxes killed during a chase contained 10 times the amount of creatine as that found in captive foxes. From this he concluded that an accumulation of creatine occurs with muscle work (Balsom et al., 1994). Also in the mid-19th century, Heintz and Pettenkofer discovered a substance in the urine that Lieberg later identified as creatinine, a product of creatine degradation (Demant and Rhodes, 1999). In the early 20th century, researchers discovered that only part of an ingested dose of creatine is recovered in the urine, leading them to believe that some was retained in the body. In the early 1900s, it was found that creatine ingestion was able to increase the creatine content in the muscles of cats by up to 70%. In 1923, Hahn and Meyer estimated a total creatine content of 140 g in a 70-kg male, which is similar to current approximations (Balsom et al., 1994). Just a few years later, Fiske and Subbarow discovered a labile phosphorus compound in the resting muscle of cats. This substance, which they named creatine phosphate, disappeared during electrical stimulation of skeletal muscle but increased to previous levels following a recovery period (Demant et al., 1999).