Melatonin. A Mammalian Pineal Hormone*

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Abstract
PROBABLY no other organ in the body has suffered so long from a lack of its true functional recognition as the pineal gland. For more than two centuries the pineal was thought to be the seat of the soul or a vestigial remnant of the parietal eye. However, pineal research over the last 20 years has contributed significantly to unraveling the functional significance of this enigmatic endocrine gland. In this respect the isolation and characterization of melatonin by Lerner et al. (1) in 1958 constituted a landmark inasmuch as it was the first substance to be characterized in the pineal gland that reproduced many of the effects of pineal extracts or reversed the endocrine sequelae of pinealectomy. Today the pineal gland is recognized as an active functioning neuroendocrine organ that responds primarily to photic stimuli (and secondarily to hormonal signals originating in target tissues), exhibits circadian rhythms, and influences the metabolic activity of a host of endocrine glands.

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