The short version of creatine fits in a sentence. The long version — which is the one that helps — is below.
This page was last updated on 2026-06-15 and is reviewed periodically as new material appears.
Creatine was first identified in skeletal muscle extracts in the nineteenth century, and its role in phosphagen energy buffering was clarified in the twentieth century. The monohydrate salt became widely studied after methods for inexpensive synthesis and crystallization were developed. Modern research examines its effects on muscle energetics, recovery, and cognitive performance under specific conditions. Findings vary with population, exercise protocol, baseline creatine status, and measurement method. Studies often compare supplementation with placebo during controlled training or testing schedules.
Creatine monohydrate is a hydrated form of creatine, a nitrogen-containing compound involved in cellular energy metabolism. Its molecular formula is C4H9N3O2·H2O, with a molar mass around 149.15 g/mol. The monohydrate is the most common solid form used in research and commercial settings because it crystallizes readily and remains stable under ordinary conditions. The term monohydrate indicates one water molecule per creatine molecule in the crystal lattice. It appears as a white crystalline powder with low odor.
In chemical terms, creatine monohydrate is often described as N-(aminoiminomethyl)-N-methylglycine monohydrate, though nomenclature varies. Its solid state consists of zwitterionic creatine molecules linked with water through hydrogen bonding. The compound dissolves in water, but dissolution rate depends on particle size, temperature, and agitation. Once dissolved, the hydrate water becomes part of the solvent, leaving free creatine in solution. The monohydrate is not the same as creatine anhydrous, which lacks the water of crystallization and has a higher creatine fraction by mass.
Commercial creatine monohydrate is typically a white to off-white powder with low odor. It is commonly sold as a fine powder, micronized powder, or larger crystals, but these are physical forms of the same chemical. Purity grades vary, and products may contain small amounts of related substances such as creatinine, dicyandiamide, or moisture. The monohydrate is often selected for supplements and research because its production is well established and its behavior in water is predictable. Analytical certificates usually report assay, loss on drying, and heavy metals.
Creatine monohydrate is a crystalline compound formed from creatine and one water molecule in its solid lattice. Creatine itself is a nitrogen-containing organic acid involved in energy transfer in muscle and other tissues. The monohydrate form is the most common solid form used in research and commercial products because it is stable and easy to handle. The term "monohydrate" refers to the fixed one-to-one ratio of water to creatine in the crystal, not to moisture content. This distinction matters when comparing labels or calculating creatine content.
| Property | Value | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Molecular formula | C4H9N3O2·H2O | Creatine plus one water molecule in the crystal lattice. |
| Molar mass | 149.15 g/mol | Calculated for the monohydrate form. |
| Appearance | White crystalline powder | Typical solid form; particle size can vary by processing. |
| Solubility class | Sparingly soluble in water | Dissolution improves with time, stirring, and temperature. |
| Common synonyms | Creatine hydrate; N-carbamimidoyl-N-methylglycine monohydrate | Names vary by chemical registry and supplier. |
As a supplement, creatine monohydrate is studied for its effects on muscle performance and recovery. The compound is often described as an ergogenic aid, meaning it may support physical work capacity. Research typically compares it with placebo or other forms, such as citrate or nitrate, under controlled conditions. Questions remain about the optimal dose and long-term effects in different populations, and findings are not uniform across all studies. The monohydrate form remains the most extensively tested.
Creatine monohydrate is a crystalline compound formed from creatine and one molecule of water. Its systematic name is N-(aminoiminomethyl)-N-methylglycine monohydrate, and it appears as a white, odorless powder with limited solubility in water. The monohydrate is the most common solid form used in research and commercial products because it is stable under dry conditions. The anhydrous form lacks the water of crystallization and differs slightly in molar mass. Both forms participate in the same biochemical reactions once dissolved.
Storage recommendations generally emphasize a cool, dry place away from direct sunlight and strong oxidizers. Sealed containers limit humidity exchange, which helps prevent clumping and gradual conversion to creatinine. Long-term stability studies usually monitor appearance, moisture, and purity at intervals under defined temperature and humidity conditions. Accelerated tests at elevated temperature can reveal degradation pathways, but they do not perfectly predict room-temperature shelf life. Questions remain about how much creatinine formation is acceptable in different product categories and how packaging choices affect that rate over time.
Commercial creatine monohydrate is typically manufactured through chemical synthesis, often starting from sarcosine and cyanamide. The resulting material is crystallized, washed, and dried to a specified hydrate content. Finished lots are tested for identity, purity, moisture, and heavy metals before release. Because the compound can cyclize to creatinine under heat or prolonged storage in solution, manufacturers control temperature and humidity during processing. The solid itself is relatively stable when kept dry and sealed, but moisture uptake can cause caking and complicate accurate assay.
In animals, creatine is synthesized mainly in liver, kidney, and pancreas from arginine, glycine, and methionine. The first committed step transfers a guanidino group from arginine to glycine, forming guanidinoacetate. Subsequent methylation by S-adenosylmethionine yields creatine. Dietary sources include meat and fish; endogenous synthesis supplies part of the body pool. Most creatine is stored in skeletal muscle, where it is converted to phosphocreatine and participates in rapid regeneration of adenosine triphosphate during short, intense activity.
Commercial creatine products appear in several forms, including monohydrate, hydrochloride, citrate, nitrate, and ethyl ester. Creatine monohydrate is the most studied form and serves as a reference material in comparative research. Different forms vary in solubility, pH, and water content, but they share creatine as the active moiety after dissolution. Claims that one form is uniformly superior remain debated, and study designs often differ in population, exercise protocol, and outcome measures. Purity and hydration state are central to interpreting product labels.
Creatine monohydrate is the hydrated form of creatine, a nitrogen-containing organic acid involved in cellular energy transfer. Its molecular formula is C4H11N3O3, and it consists of creatine plus one water molecule in the crystal lattice. The anhydrous base, creatine, has the formula C4H9N3O2. The compound appears as a white, odorless, crystalline powder and is classified as a guanidine derivative. It is distinct from creatinine, a breakdown product measured in clinical chemistry.
== Political career outside Parliament (2015–2023) == During his unsuccessful 2015 general election campaign to be re-elected for Bradford West, Galloway announced he would stand in the 2016 London mayoral election if he lost. Journalist Dave Hill accused Galloway of making "cutting personal attacks" about Labour mayoral candidate Sadiq Khan, a Muslim whom "Galloway ... appears to consider ... an inadequate practitioner of his faith" (a reference to Galloway's remark that Khan held the Quran in his left, not right, hand, and it "wasn't missed by people who care about these things"). In the final result, Galloway came seventh with 37,007 (1.4%) first preference votes. After second preferences were accounted for, Khan became mayor.
== Electronic structure of the sugar-phosphate backbone == The sugar-phosphate backbone has multiplex electronic structure and the electron delocalisation complicates its theoretical description. Some part of the electronic density is delocalised over the whole backbone and the extent of the delocalisation is affected by backbone conformation due to hyper-conjugation effects. Hyper-conjugation arises from donor-acceptor interactions of localised orbitals in 1,3 positions.
239Pu, a fissile isotope that is the second most used nuclear fuel in nuclear reactors after uranium-235, and the most used fuel in the fission portion of nuclear weapons, is produced from uranium-238 by neutron capture followed by two beta decays. 240Pu, 241Pu, and 242Pu are produced by further neutron capture. The odd-mass isotopes 239Pu and 241Pu have about a 3/4 chance of undergoing fission on capture of a thermal neutron and about a 1/4 chance of retaining the neutron and becoming the next heavier isotope. The even-mass isotopes are fertile but not fissile and also have a lower probability (cross section) of neutron capture; therefore, they tend to accumulate in nuclear fuel used in a thermal reactor, the design of nearly all nuclear power plants today. In plutonium that has been used a second time in thermal reactors in MOX fuel, 240Pu may even be the most common isotope. All plutonium isotopes and other actinides, however, are fissionable with fast neutrons. 240Pu does have a moderate thermal neutron absorption cross section, so that 241Pu production in a thermal reactor becomes a significant fraction as large as 239Pu production. 241Pu has a half-life of 14 years, and has slightly higher thermal neutron cross sections than 239Pu for both fission and absorption. While nuclear fuel is being used in a reactor, a 241Pu nucleus is much more likely to fission or to capture a neutron than to decay. 241Pu accounts for a significant portion of fissions in thermal reactor fuel that has been used for some time.
Augustus exiled his daughter Julia, guilty of "excessive sentimental vivacity", to Reggio. In 61 Paul the Apostle passed through Reggio on his way to Rome. Christianity spread in Calabria to the port centers and along the Via Popilia, vital areas of the Roman region. Emperor Trajan opened the Via Traiana during his rule, roughly traced by State Road 18 Tirrena halfway up the coast. In 305 Calabrian patrician Bulla rebelled against the Roman Empire with 600 horsemen and 5,000 infantry. He was defeated by the imperial militia, but Rome never fully controlled the forests of Sila. On October 1, 313 Constantine I promulgated the Edict of Milan in favor of Christianity, which began to spread. In 391 Emperor Theodosius I proclaimed Christianity the state religion. In 363 Basil the Great landed in Caesarea. His disciples founded various monasteries and cenobia beginning in the ninth century, laying the foundations of the Calabrian-Greek monastic tradition. In 365 an earthquake accompanied by a tidal wave shook the southern Mediterranean, affecting Calabria's coastal towns. The Roman Empire split into two branches. The Western branch, ruled by Honorius with its capital in Ravenna, suffered in 410 the invasion of Alaric's Visigoths, who sacked Rome and marched south. Legend has it that Alaric died in Cosenza, buried at the confluence of the Crati and Busento under the two rivers.
Sources: en.wikipedia.org
== External links == Media related to Protons at Wikimedia Commons Particle Data Group at LBL Large Hadron Collider Eaves, Laurence; Copeland, Ed; Padilla, Antonio (Tony) (2010). "The shrinking proton". Sixty Symbols. Brady Haran for the University of Nottingham. MIT proton visualization project: Inside the Proton, the 'Most Complicated Thing You Could Possibly Imagine', Quanta Magazine, Oct 19 2022 Visualizing the Proton, Arts at MIT, 2022
== Vaccination == As of 2026, no human vaccines for Lyme disease were available. The only human vaccine to advance to market was LYMErix, which was available from 1998, but discontinued in 2002. A human vaccine candidate created by Pfizer and Valneva was put up for regulatory approval in March 2026. Multiple vaccines are available for the prevention of Lyme disease in dogs.
=== Impact === Soon after the publication of Libby's 1949 paper in Science, universities around the world began establishing radiocarbon-dating laboratories, and by the end of the 1950s there were more than 20 active 14C research laboratories. It quickly became apparent that the principles of radiocarbon dating were valid, despite certain discrepancies, the causes of which then remained unknown. The development of radiocarbon dating has had a profound impact on archaeology – often described as the "radiocarbon revolution". In the words of anthropologist R. E. Taylor, "14C data made a world prehistory possible by contributing a time scale that transcends local, regional and continental boundaries". It provides more accurate dating within sites than previous methods, which usually derived either from stratigraphy or from typologies (e.g. of stone tools or pottery); it also allows comparison and synchronization of events across great distances. The advent of radiocarbon dating may even have led to better field methods in archaeology since better data recording leads to a firmer association of objects with the samples to be tested. These improved field methods were sometimes motivated by attempts to prove that a 14C date was incorrect. Taylor also suggests that the availability of definite date information freed archaeologists from the need to focus so much of their energy on determining the dates of their finds, and led to an expansion of the questions archaeologists were willing to research.
As the new Emperor could not exert his constitutional powers until he came of age, a regency was set up by the General Assembly. In the absence of a charismatic figure who could represent a moderate face of power, a series of localized rebellions took place, such as the Cabanagem in Grão-Pará, the Malê Revolt in Salvador, the Balaiada (Maranhão), the Sabinada (Bahia), and the Ragamuffin War, which began in Rio Grande do Sul and was supported by Giuseppe Garibaldi. These emerged from the provinces' dissatisfaction with the central power, coupled with old and latent social tensions peculiar to a vast, slaveholding and newly independent nation state. This period of internal political and social upheaval, which included the Praieira revolt in Pernambuco, was overcome only at the end of the 1840s, years after the end of the regency, which occurred with the premature coronation of Pedro II in 1841. During the last phase of the monarchy, internal political debate centered on the issue of slavery. The Atlantic slave trade was outlawed in 1850, as a result of the British Aberdeen Act and the Eusébio de Queirós Law, but only in May 1888, after a long process of internal mobilization and debate for an ethical and legal dismantling of slavery in the country, was the institution formally abolished with the approval of the Golden Law. The foreign-affairs policies of the monarchy dealt with issues pertaining Brazil's neighboring countries in the Southern Cone.
The concept of acheiropoieta (Medieval Greek: αχειροποίητα, lit. 'made without hand'; sing. acheiropoieton) has a long history in Christianity, going back at least to the 6th century. These are images believed to have been miraculously produced, without the agency of any human artist. Among the most prominent acheiropoieta are the Image of Camuliana and the Image of Edessa (also called the "Mandylion"). Both of these were icons of Jesus reported to have existed in the Byzantine Empire, but which are now generally regarded as having been lost or destroyed. Other popular Byzantine acheiropoieta were Hodegetria images of the Virgin Mary. Some images currently held in Italy and other Western European countries, including the Manoppello Image, have been revered as acheiropoieta of Jesus. These are usually associated with the tradition of the Veil of Veronica, according to which the image of Jesus's face was miraculously imprinted on the cloth that Saint Veronica used to wipe the blood and sweat from the face of Jesus when she comforted him on the Via Dolorosa. Although some of these images were once objects of major popular devotions among Catholics, today they have been overshadowed by the fame and prestige of the Shroud of Turin. Another popular relic of Jesus is the Sudarium of Oviedo, which is kept in the Cámara Santa of the Cathedral of San Salvador, in Oviedo, Spain. This is not an acheiropoieton, but rather a simple bloodstained cloth purported to have been wrapped around the head of Jesus after his death.
Sources: en.wikipedia.org
=== 1,400-year-old ginkgo tree at Gu Guanyin === The grounds of the Buddhist temple at Gu Guanyin in the Zhongnan Mountains feature a ginkgo tree reputed to be 1,400 years old. The tree itself is a popular tourist attraction.
=== Chairmen === R.S. Sharma, 1972 - 1977 A.R. Kulkarni, 1978 - 1981 Niharranjan Ray, 1981 - 1981 Lokesh Chandra, 1982 - 1985 Irfan Habib, 1986 - 1993 Ravinder Kumar, 1993 - 1996 S. Settar, 1996 - 1999 K.S. Sarma (acting), 1999 - 1999 B.R. Grover, 1999 - 2001 K.S. Lal, 2001 - 2001 M.G.S. Narayanan, 2001 - 2003 Kumud Bansal (acting), 2003 - 2004 D.N. Tripathi, 2004 - 2007 K.M. Acharya (acting), 2007 - 2007 Sabyasachi Bhattacharya, 4 March 2007 – 3 March 2010 Sabyasachi Bhattacharya (acting), 4 April 2010 – 20 May 2011 Basudev Chatterjee, 20 May 2011 - 2014 Yellapragada Sudershan Rao, 28 June 2014 - 26 June 2017 A.P Jamkhedkar, 15 February 2018 – 14 January 2022 Raghuvendra Tanwar, 14 January 2022 - present
=== Industry sectors === Singapore is the world's third-largest foreign exchange centre, sixth-largest financial centre, second-largest casino gambling market, third-largest oil-refining and trading centre, largest oil-rig producer and hub for ship repair services, and largest logistics hub. The economy is diversified, with its top contributors being financial services, manufacturing, and oil-refining. Its main exports are refined petroleum, integrated circuits, and computers, which constituted 27% of the country's GDP in 2010. Other significant sectors include electronics, chemicals, mechanical engineering, and biomedical sciences. Singapore was ranked 5th in the Global Innovation Index in 2025. In 2019, there were more than 60 semiconductor companies in Singapore, which together constituted 11% of the global market share. The semiconductor industry alone contributes around 7% of Singapore's GDP. Singapore's largest companies are in the telecommunications, banking, transportation, and manufacturing sectors, many of which started as state-run statutory corporations and have since been publicly listed on the Singapore Exchange. Such companies include Singapore Telecommunications (Singtel), Singapore Technologies Engineering, Keppel Corporation, Oversea-Chinese Banking Corporation (OCBC), Development Bank of Singapore (DBS), and United Overseas Bank (UOB). In 2011, after the 2008 financial crisis, OCBC, DBS and UOB were ranked by Bloomberg Businessweek as the world's first, fifth, and sixth strongest banks in the world, respectively.
=== Central hematopoietic and antigen-responsive organ === Bone marrow is a priming site for T-cell responses to blood-borne antigens, as first described in 2003. Mature circulating naïve T cells travel to bone marrow sinuses after they have passed through arteries and arterioles. They transmigrate sinus endothelium and enter the parenchyma which contains dendritic cells (DCs). These have a capacity of antigen uptake, processing, and presentation. Cognate interactions between antigen-specific T cells and antigen-presenting DCs (APCs) in parenchyma lead to rapid T-APC cluster formation followed by T cell activation, T cell proliferation and T cell re-circulation to blood. These findings were corroborated and extended in 2013 by in situ two-photon dynamic imaging of mice skulls.
==== Metals as catalytic sites ==== The metals in the MOF structure often act as Lewis acids. The metals in MOFs often coordinate to labile solvent molecules or counter ions which can be removed after activation of the framework. The Lewis acidic nature of such unsaturated metal centers can activate the coordinated organic substrates for subsequent organic transformations. The use of unsaturated metal centers was demonstrated in the cyanosilylation of aldehydes and imines by Makoto Fujita and coworkers in 2004. They reported MOF of composition {[Cd(4,4′-bpy)2(H2O)2] • (NO3)2 • 4H2O} which was obtained by treating linear bridging ligand 4,4′-bipyridine (bpy) with Cd(NO3)2. The Cd(II) centers in this MOF possess a distorted octahedral geometry having four pyridines in the equatorial positions, and two water molecules in the axial positions to form a two-dimensional infinite network. On activation, two water molecules were removed leaving the metal centers unsaturated and Lewis acidic. The Lewis acidic character of metal center was tested on cyanosilylation reactions of imine where the imine gets attached to the Lewis-acidic metal centre resulting in higher electrophilicity of imines. For the cyanosilylation of imines, most of the reactions were complete within 1 h affording aminonitriles in quantitative yield. Kaskel and coworkers carried out similar cyanosilylation reactions with coordinatively unsaturated metals in three-dimensional (3D) MOFs as heterogeneous catalysts.
Sources: en.wikipedia.org
Creatine is the base compound, while creatine monohydrate is a solid crystalline form that contains one water molecule per creatine molecule. Once dissolved, the monohydrate dissociates and releases creatine, which can participate in cellular energy metabolism. The monohydrate is the form most commonly used in research and commercial products.
Meat and fish contain creatine, and the human body also synthesizes it from amino acids. The monohydrate form is not a natural food ingredient as such; it is a manufactured crystalline solid that provides creatine after ingestion. Food sources contribute to total body creatine stores alongside endogenous synthesis.
It means the crystal lattice includes one molecule of water for each molecule of creatine. This water is part of the solid's ordered structure, not bulk moisture. The hydrate form influences properties such as solubility, density, and shelf stability.
It is a solid form of creatine that contains one water molecule per creatine molecule in the crystal lattice. The hydrate water is part of the crystal structure rather than loose moisture. The term is often used for the common crystalline powder grade.