GHRP-2

What is GHRP-2?

GHRP-2, also called pralmorelin, is a synthetic hexapeptide that tells your pituitary to release its own growth hormone. It belongs to the same ghrelin-mimetic GHRP family as ipamorelin, but it is older and hits harder. Per dose it drives more GH output than ipamorelin. The tradeoff is a rougher profile: it raises appetite, and at higher doses it nudges cortisol and prolactin up too. In Japan it is approved as pralmorelin, but only as a diagnostic agent for testing growth hormone deficiency, not as a therapy.

How GHRP-2 works

GHRP-2 is an agonist of the ghrelin receptor (GHS-R1a) in the pituitary and hypothalamus. Ghrelin is the body's hunger hormone, and the same receptor also triggers GH release, so GHRP-2 does both: a sharp, pulsatile burst of GH plus a real bump in hunger. Because it works through the ghrelin receptor rather than the GHRH receptor, it is often discussed alongside GHRH analogs like CJC-1295, which act on a separate pathway.

What the research shows

GHRP-2 has been studied in humans since the 1990s. Controlled work found that a 1 mcg/kg dose produced GH responses that exceeded the maximal response to GHRH in healthy adults, and the effect is dose-dependent up to roughly 2 mcg/kg before it plateaus. A separate study in healthy men confirmed that GHRP-2, like ghrelin, reliably increases food intake. So the mechanism and the short-term GH and appetite effects are well documented. What is missing is long-term outcome data for the body-composition and anti-aging uses it is sold for.

Dosage and how it is used

There is no approved dose for these uses. Community and clinic protocols commonly reference roughly 100 to 300 mcg subcutaneously, once to a few times per day, often before sleep or around training. These numbers come from practice and early research, not from modern dose-finding trials, so treat them as convention rather than validated medicine.

→ How to reconstitute GHRP-2: calculator, units to draw & storage

Side effects and safety

GHRP-2 is less selective than ipamorelin, so more of its effects spill outside GH. Short-term reports include strong hunger, water retention, tingling, and, at higher doses, elevated cortisol and prolactin. It is not FDA-approved for anti-aging or body-composition use, and there is no long-term human safety data at the doses people actually use.

• Raises appetite noticeably; can raise cortisol and prolactin at higher doses.
• Well characterized for short-term GH release; limited long-term outcome data.
• Not FDA-approved for these uses. Verify current legal status independently.

Frequently asked questions

References

• Laferrere B et al. Growth hormone releasing peptide-2 (GHRP-2), like ghrelin, increases food intake in healthy men. J Clin Endocrinol Metab, 2005.