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Definition: "An ergogenic aid is any substance or phenomenon that enhances performance "

23.11.2009

Bottle of S4 costs $170 online

The S4 on sale on websites like Rui Products [www.ruiproducts.com] and Cem Products is probably authentic, but may not be completely pure. Mario Thevis, from the German Sport University Cologne, bought two bottles of S4 on the web and analysed them. This means it's now a fact: SARMs [the successors of anabolic steroids] are used in the doping scene.

SARMs (in full, selective androgen receptor modulators) don't resemble testosterone. Nor do they resemble the hormone's synthetic muscle-building chemical cousins, the anabolic steroids. But they do stimulate the androgen receptor, and they result in muscle building, in theory with fewer side effects than the old fashioned steroid hormones that your dealer sells. Chapter 20 of the Anabolics Book is about SARMs.

Clever supplements manufacturers have already launched products that are said to contain SARMs. SARM-X is an example. But these products are a public deception.

The SARM which is closest to being marketable is S4 or andarine. The makers of S4 are already doing human trials. S4 is primarily intended for cancer patients who are losing muscle mass. At first it looked as though S4 might not be such an effective muscle enhancer, but later studies have proved otherwise. Pat Arnold has posted information on it, although his postings indicated that he doesn't regard S4 as worthwhile marketing. 'Too expensive' was Arnold’s verdict. There are also postings on message boards from athletes who experiment on themselves with S4. [Structural formula shown below.]

Mario Thevis was prompted by the web discussions to go in search of websites claiming to sell S4. He came across Rui Products, which recently started selling S4. For research purposes, not for human consumption, we should add here.

The bottles, Thevis writes in Drug Testing & Analysis, contain 30 ml of an oily fluid. They are in a box with words with something like 'face moisturizer and green tea extract' on the packaging. One ml of the substance contains 150 mg S4, according to Thevis. This is strange. All the products we know of contain only 50mg/ml. Looks like a friendly Chinese bulk supplier was giving discount on S4.

The product that Thevis tested was not pure. Each ml also contained 15 mg of a compound that is produced when S4 is synthesised, and which the manufacturer should have purified out of the preparation. The structural formula of the contaminant is shown here below.

For Thevis this is evidence that this S4 does not come from a legally operating company. And that S4 is used by chemical athletes. "The present report demonstrates once more that the misuse of therapeutics in early or advanced clinical trials by athletes cannot be dismissed, especially when anecdotal evidence for the misuse of S4 is frequently discussed in respective Internet-based chat rooms", Thevis concludes.

Maybe it's just a coincidence, but Rui Products has published a lab analysis on its website, which states that Rui Products’ Liquid S4 does not contain contaminants.

Source:
Drug Test. Analysis 2009, 1, 387–92.