GSH
Glutathione
A tripeptide, gamma-L-glutamyl-L-cysteinylglycine. The bond to the glutamate is unusual: it forms through the side-chain carboxyl rather than the alpha carboxyl, which is why ordinary peptidases do not cleave it. Its reactive group is the cysteine thiol, and its role is as a redox substrate rather than as a ligand at any receptor.
Glutathione has 72 registered human studies on ClinicalTrials.gov, reaching phase 4, covering 5,528 planned or enrolled participants across the 70 studies that published a figure. No FDA-approved product contains Glutathione. 72,118 papers naming it were published in the last ten years.
Collected 2026-08-02 from ClinicalTrials.gov and Drugs@FDA. Counts include only trials whose registered intervention names Glutathione; the registry search is fuzzy, so every match is re-checked. None of this says whether Glutathione works or is safe.
FDA status
Research only
Human studies
72
Furthest phase
Phase 4
Papers, 10 yr
72,118
Readership
14,776
monthly average, Feb–Jul 2026
Tracking since 2026-07-29 · About this data
What has actually been tested in humans
Reached phase 3 or 4, not approved
72
Registered human studies
Phase 4
Furthest phase reached
5,528
Planned or enrolled participants, across 70 studies that published a figure
None
No FDA-approved product contains it
267 loose registry matches were checked and 72 confirmed — 195 named something else and were discarded. We count a study only when Glutathione is named as an intervention in it.
Registered means registered — not that the study finished, and not that it found anything. The grade is mechanical: it is computed from the registry and the FDA record alone, and it grades how much is known, never whether a compound is good or safe. Collected 2026-08-02 from ClinicalTrials.gov and Drugs@FDA. Check the query.
What Glutathione is, and what it has been studied for
Glutathione is classified by ChEMBL as a small molecule, and appears in trial registrations under NSC-400639. Its FDA substance identifier is GAN16C9B8O.
Across 72 registered trials, it has been studied in Glutathione, Cystic Fibrosis, Oxidative Stress and Type 2 Diabetes. A condition here is what a sponsor registered the trial under — it records what was investigated, not what was shown.
The trials were run by Cairo University and Bastyr University among others. A named commercial sponsor means a compound is in formal development; its absence does not mean the opposite, only that no company has registered a trial under its own name.
How far it got
Glutathione reached Phase 4 across 72 registered trials.
No FDA-approved product contains Glutathione. A compound can stop at any rung for commercial reasons as easily as scientific ones, and the registry does not record which.
Is anyone studying Glutathione?
Papers published each year that name Glutathione in the title or abstract, with the clinical trials that started in the same year marked beneath. Ten calendar years.
| Year | Publications | Trials started | Complete year |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2017 | 6542 | 1 | Yes |
| 2018 | 6978 | 3 | Yes |
| 2019 | 7343 | 2 | Yes |
| 2020 | 8264 | 4 | Yes |
| 2021 | 8618 | 3 | Yes |
| 2022 | 9017 | 3 | Yes |
| 2023 | 8528 | 1 | Yes |
| 2024 | 9181 | 3 | Yes |
| 2025 | 10410 | 9 | Yes |
| 2026 | 6976 | 6 | No |
72,118 papers and 35 registered trials between 2017 and 2026. A paper counts when “Glutathione” appears in its title or abstract — phrase-matched, so a paper mentioning the words separately is not counted. The total is a single query over the whole window, which is why it does not equal the bars added together: PubMed files a paper under both its electronic and its print publication date, so one paper can appear in two years. Publication volume measures scientific attention, not whether a compound works: a well-studied compound can be well-studied and ineffective. Sources: PubMed and ClinicalTrials.gov · collected 2026-08-02.
Published research on Glutathione
72,118 indexed papers name Glutathione in their title or abstract. These are the 8 PubMed ranks most relevant. Listing a paper is not a judgement about it, and none of these is summarised here — follow the link and read what it says.
- The antioxidant glutathione
- Glutathione as a skin-lightening agent and in melasma: a systematic review
- The Glutathione Theory of Aging
- Mitochondrial Glutathione: Regulation and Functions
- Glutathione in Brain Disorders and Aging
- Glutathione-Related Enzymes and Proteins: A Review
- Glutathione: subcellular distribution and membrane transport (1)
- Glutathione monoesters
Collected 2026-08-02from PubMed, phrase-matched on “Glutathione” in title and abstract. Run the same search.
About Glutathione
A tripeptide, gamma-L-glutamyl-L-cysteinylglycine. The bond to the glutamate is unusual: it forms through the side-chain carboxyl rather than the alpha carboxyl, which is why ordinary peptidases do not cleave it. Its reactive group is the cysteine thiol, and its role is as a redox substrate rather than as a ligand at any receptor.
- Also known as
- GSH · L-glutathione reduced
Structure and mechanism only. Nothing above describes what this compound is for, and no dose appears anywhere on this page.
Reading on this compound
All articles →PepRack articles that reference this compound. This is not a news feed — we syndicate nothing and publish no datelines.
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