Investigative Guides
Sourcing & COA Guide
A vendor-neutral walkthrough of where research peptides come from, how certificates of analysis are structured, and which details separate a real report from a fabricated one.
The three supplier categories
Private research vendors, gray-market resale sites, and licensed compounding pharmacies each carry different verification burdens. Pharmacies are regulated and traceable but restricted. Private vendors vary enormously in quality control. Gray-market resellers frequently repackage the same upstream lots under different labels, which is why identical COAs sometimes appear across unrelated brand names.
Reading an HPLC report
High-performance liquid chromatography separates the sample into peaks. The main peak area as a percentage of total area is the purity figure. Look for a single dominant peak above 98%, a labelled retention time, a visible baseline, and a chromatogram image — not just a summary table. A purity number with no attached chromatogram is not evidence.
Mass spectrometry confirms identity
HPLC tells you how pure the sample is; mass spec tells you what it actually is. The reported molecular weight must match the peptide's theoretical mass within a small tolerance. A COA with purity data but no mass-spec identity check leaves the door open to a pure but entirely different compound.
Lot matching
The lot number printed on the vial must match the lot on the COA, and the test date should precede your purchase. Vendors that publish a single COA for all lots indefinitely are showing you a marketing asset, not a test result.
Red flags
Cropped or image-only COAs with no lab letterhead. Purity above 99.9% on every product. A testing lab with no independent web presence. Prices far below the market floor for expensive compounds. Pressure tactics, disappearing stock counters, and crypto-only payment with no refund policy.
BAC water vs sterile water
Bacteriostatic water contains 0.9% benzyl alcohol, which inhibits microbial growth and supports a multi-use window of roughly 28 days refrigerated. Sterile water has no preservative and is single-use. For any vial intended for more than one draw, bacteriostatic water is the standard choice in published protocols.
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