ABSTRACT
It has been over 50 years since Lerner has discovered that melatonin (N-acetyl-5-methoxytryptamine) is present in the skin (reviewed in [1]). In 1958, Lerner et al. isolated the chemical compound from the beef pineal extract and injected it into the frog melanocytes [2]. He found that this extract causes the lightening of the skin. Although the £rst experiment to ever show that the pineal gland causes lightening of the frog skin was performed by McCord and Allen in 1917, Lerner was the £rst to de£ne the structure of melatonin as N-acetyl-5-methoxytryptamine and show that it is an antagonist for melanocyte-stimulating hormone [2].
