How are hormones extracted and added to supplements or pills?

Question

Sorry if this has been asked before!

In: Chemistry

Answer 1

They’re not always extracted. At least, not any more.

Adrenaline, for example, was first extracted and used in research more than 100 years ago. Initially, it was extracted from donors, cadavers and even animals. But today, adrenaline, like most hormones, is synthesized in a lab. It was extracted, but when the chemical composition was discovered, it can be made out of other chemicals (which themselves are synthesized in more or less the same way).