When Lerner and colleagues discovered melatonin, their paper in the Journal of the American Chemical Society reads:We wish to report isolation from beef pineal glands of the active factor that can lighten skin color and inhibit MSH. It is suggested that this substance be called melatonin.The name was derived from the Greek words melas meaning "black" or "dark", and tonos meaning "labour" or "colour" or "suppress". It follows the naming style of another skin-whitening agent, serotonin, with which Lerner and colleagues compared the effects. Serotonin was discovered in 1948 as a modulator of vascular tone (serum vasoconstrictor); hence, the name. Melatonin was named likewise as it prevented darkening of the skin.
