Do I need a prescription for Methyl nicotinate 1% cream?

Methyl nicotinate 1% cream is classified as a Valid as a prescribable product in the UK. However, always consult a pharmacist or doctor before use. (Source: NHS dm+d)

What are the brand names for Methyl nicotinate 1% cream?

Methyl nicotinate 1% cream is the generic name. It is available under brand names including: Pickles Chilblain 1% cream. (Source: NHS dm+d — Actual Medicinal Products)

NOT medical advice. Always consult a healthcare professional. NOT affiliated with or endorsed by the NHS, NHSBSA, MHRA, or any government body.

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NOT medical advice. Always consult a qualified healthcare professional. NOT affiliated with, or endorsed by the NHS, NHSBSA, MHRA, or any government body.

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NOT medical advice. Always consult a qualified healthcare professional. NOT affiliated with, or endorsed by the NHS, NHSBSA, MHRA, or any government body.

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Methyl nicotinate 1% cream

Cream

Topical

Creams, ointments & gels

Methyl nicotinate is the methyl ester of [DB00627] that is used as an active ingredient as a rubefacient in over-the-counter topical preparations indicated for muscle and joint pain.

Active ingredients:

Methyl nicotinate

Chemical classBrowse classes

Classification based on the molecule's chemical structure and properties

Check interactions for Methyl nicotinate

No active safety alerts

Official documents, adverse reaction reporting, and safety monitoring

Report a side effect

Submit a Yellow Card report to the MHRA

Official medicine documents

Yellow Card

Report side effects (MHRA)

Drug safety updates

MHRA alerts for Methyl nicotinate

Source: MHRA Products DatabaseOGL 3.0

Updated 16 Jan 2026

Safety monitoring data

Yellow Card reports

MHRA

The MHRA Yellow Card scheme collects reports of suspected side effects from healthcare professionals and patients. View the Drug Analysis Profile (iDAP) for real-world adverse reaction data.

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Suspected adverse reactions reported for Methyl nicotinate

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Interactive Drug Analysis Profiles for all medicines

Report a side effect

Submit a Yellow Card report to the MHRA

Data from the MHRA Yellow Card scheme. A reported reaction does not necessarily mean the medicine caused it. Contains public sector information licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0.

EudraVigilance

EMA

The European Medicines Agency (EMA) collects suspected adverse reaction reports from across the EU/EEA through the EudraVigilance system. Search for safety data on this medicine.

View EudraVigilance report

Suspected adverse reactions reported for Methyl nicotinate

About EudraVigilance

Learn about EU pharmacovigilance and safety monitoring

EudraVigilance data is published by the European Medicines Agency (EMA). A suspected adverse reaction is not necessarily caused by the medicine.

1 branded products available

1 products

Possibly available on the UK marketDiscontinuedAvailability per NHS dm+d

MHRA licensed products

View all licensed products for Methyl nicotinate on the MHRA register

Pickles Chilblain 1% cream

Optima Consumer Health Ltd

Discontinued

Source: NHS dm+dOGL 3.0

Updated 1 Mar 2026

Therapeutically similar medicines

2 similar

Topicals

(1)

Benzyl alcohol 7.5% / Eucalyptus oil 1% cream

Cream

7.5%

Same therapeutic group (NHS)

Tablets & capsules

(1)

Generic Snowfire Healing Tablet stick

Tablet

Same therapeutic group (NHS)

Similarity is based on WHO Anatomical Therapeutic Chemical (ATC) classification and on a factual NHS dm+d therapeutic-grouping code prefix. Source data: NHS dm+d via TRUD (OGL v3.0), WHO ATC/DDD Index.

NHS prescribing volume and spending trends

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Check stock at pharmacies and supply information

Pharmacy stock checkers

Search for this medicine at major UK pharmacy chains. These links open the retailer's own website — results depend on their current online catalogue.

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Lloyds

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P2U

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DeliveryNHS

Supply & safety information

Official UK regulator monitoring and safety alerts

MHRA drug safety updates

UK regulator alerts and supply notices

Pharmacy links redirect to the retailer's own search and do not represent real-time stock levels. Shortage and safety information sourced from MHRA drug safety updates (gov.uk, Crown Copyright under OGL v3.0).

Codes for healthcare professionals and prescribing systems

These codes are used by healthcare IT systems and prescribers to identify this medicine.

NHS UK identifiers

SNOMED CT

5000011000001101

dm+d ID

5000011000001101

VTM (Virtual Therapeutic Moiety)

776741005

VMP (Virtual Medicinal Product)

5000011000001101

SNOMED CT and dm+d codes from NHS TRUD (Technology Reference data Update Distribution), licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0.

Active and completed clinical studies from ClinicalTrials.gov

Searching UK clinical trials...

Source: ClinicalTrials.gov, a database of the U.S. National Library of Medicine (NLM), National Institutes of Health (NIH). Data accessed via ClinicalTrials.gov API v2. Trial information is provided for research purposes and does not constitute medical advice.

Academic studies and reviews for this medicine's active substance

Showing the 50 most relevant studies.

Reviews & meta-analyses: 2 · Randomised trials: 1 · 1985–2026

Sort

Clinical microneedle injection of methyl nicotinate: stratum corneum penetration

R. Sivamani, B. Stoeber, Gabriel C. Wu, et al.

Skin Research and Technology, 2005

Cited by 175

Needles
Epidermis
Skin

Combination of Comfrey Root Extract Plus Methyl Nicotinate in Patients with Conditions of Acute Upper or Low Back Pain: A Multicentre Randomised Controlled Trial

Helmut Pabst, Axel Schaefer, Christiane Staiger, et al.

Phytotherapy Research, 2012

Randomised trial

Cited by 11

Phytotherapy
Comfrey
Low Back Pain

Pyridine Derivatives as Insecticides. Part 5. New Thieno[2,3-b]pyridines and Pyrazolo[3,4-b]pyridines Containing Mainly Ethyl Nicotinate Scaffold and Their Insecticidal Activity toward Aphis gossypii (Glover,1887).

Suzan Abuelhassan, A. Abdel-Rahman, M. Gad, et al.

Journal of agricultural and food chemistry, 2024

Cited by 38

Aphids
Pyridines
Insecticides

Theoretical structural analysis (FT-IR, FT-R), solvent effect on electronic parameters NLOf, FMO, NBO, MEP, UV (IEFPCM model), Fukui function evaluation with pharmacological analysis on methyl nicotinate

M. Vennila, R. Rathikha, S. Muthu, et al.

Computational and Theoretical Chemistry, 2022

Cited by 71

Review for "Genome organization and evolution of a eukaryotic nicotinate co-inducible pathway"

2021

Review

Decision letter for "Genome organization and evolution of a eukaryotic nicotinate co-inducible pathway"

2021

Review

One-step synthesis of water stable MAPbBr 3 quantum dots for the fluorescence detection of methyl nicotinate as a tuberculosis biomarker

Nirav Vajubhai Ghinaiya, Pinalben Angarbhai Garasiya, Tae Jung Park, et al.

New Journal of Chemistry, 2025

Cited by 2

Structural and Kinetic Analysis of Photochromic Organic Salts Derived from 3,6‐Bis(bromomethyl)durene and Nicotinic Acid/Methyl Nicotinate

Akihiro Tanaka, Sotaro Kusumoto, Takumi Ide, et al.

ChemistrySelect, 2025

Cited by 1

Effect of Additive Methyl Nicotinate on Electrochemical Behavior of Nickel–Copper Alloy Electrodeposition in ChCl-EG Deep Eutectic Solvents

Siqi Zhang, Mingxiao Xu, Mingxue Bi, et al.

Russian Journal of Physical Chemistry A, 2023

Cited by 1

Sub-picosecond photoinduced hole and electron transfer of water-soluble graphitic carbon nitride in the presence of tryptophan and methyl viologen dichloride.

Zou X, Lu R, Yu A

2025

Cited by 1

Sources: aggregated from Europe PMC (EMBL-EBI), OpenAlex, Crossref, PubMed and other open scholarly databases. Retracted articles are excluded. Study information is provided for research purposes and does not constitute medical advice.

Pharmacology and chemical data from DrugBank

go.drugbank.com

Key facts

Drug status

Approved

Major interactions

None known

Half-life

3 to 10 minutes

Mechanism

While the mechanism of action of methyl nicotinate and other topically-administe…

Food interactions

None known

Human targets

None mapped

Data: DrugBank · CC BY-NC 4.0

Pharmacokinetics at a glance

Absorption

80-90%

The presence of methyl group facilitates the penetration of methyl nicotinate through the skin with good lipophilicity, allowing rapid absorption following topical administration [F64].…

Half-life

3 to 10 minutes

In vitro, the half-life of methyl nicotinate in the dermis was 3 to 10 minutes .
[A33028]

Protein binding

No pharmacokinetic data available.

Volume of distribution

According to the animal studies, nicotinic acid is mainly concentrated in the liver, kidneys, and adipose tissue [F64].

Metabolism

Methyl nicotinate undergoes ester hydrolysis to form nicotinic acid and methanol [F64].…

Elimination

15%

Following epicutaneous administration of small radiolabelled dose of methyl nicotinate in human volunteers, approximately 15% of the dose was…

Clearance

No pharmacokinetic data available.

Pharmacokinetic data: DrugBank · CC BY-NC 4.0

Status:

Approved

Small molecule

About this compound

Methyl nicotinate is the methyl ester of DB00627 that is used as an active ingredient as a rubefacient in over-the-counter topical preparations indicated for muscle and joint pain. The action of methyl nicotinate as a rubefacient is thought to involve peripheral vasodilation. For veterinary purposes, methyl nicotinate is used to treat respiratory diseases, vascular disorders, rheumatoid arthritis, and muscle and joint pains [F64].

Properties:

solid

Avg. mass: 137.14 Da

DrugBank indication

Indicated for the temporary relief of aches and pains in muscles, tendons, and joints.

Also known as(9)

3-(Carbomethoxy)pyridine

3-(Methoxycarbonyl)pyridine

3-pyridinecarboxylic acid methyl ester

Heat spray

Methyl 3-pyridinecarboxylate

Methyl nicotinate

Methyl-nicotinate

Methylnicotinate

Molecular properties(18)

Toxicity & overdose

The acute subcutaneous LD50 of structurally-related nicotinamide and nicotinic acid in rats were 1.68 and 5.0 g/kg bw, respectively [F63]. In humans, oral ingestion of 3-9 g of nicotinic acid per day resulted in "niacin hepatitis", gout, and impaired glucose intolerance within a short period of time [F63].

How it works

Mechanism of action

While the mechanism of action of methyl nicotinate and other topically-administered nicotinic acid esters is not clear, it is thought that methyl nicotinate promotes the release of prostaglandin D2 that is strictly locally-acting due to its short half-life [A33027]. It was demonstrated in human subjects that the local cutaneous vascular response to methyl nicotinic was suppressed by inhibitors of prostaglandin biosynthesis, indicating that the effect of methyl nicotinate on vascular smooth muscles may be mediated by the release of local prostaglandins [F65]. Prostaglandins released from the skin and blood vessels induce cutaneous vasodilation [F65].

Pharmacodynamics

Following topical administration, methyl nicotinate acts as a peripheral vasodilator to enhance local blood flow at the site of application. It induced vasodilation of the peripheral blood capillaries which are located in the dermal papillae of upper dermis layers adjacent to the epidermis–dermis junction [A33027]. During tissue penetration at the dermis, methyl nicotinate is hydrolyzed to nicotinic acid [A33027]. In human volunteers, topical administration of methyl nicotinate caused vasodilation-induced generalized cutaneous erythema [A33027].

Pharmacokinetics

How the body processes this drug — absorption, distribution, metabolism, and elimination

Absorption

The presence of methyl group facilitates the penetration of methyl nicotinate through the skin with good lipophilicity, allowing rapid absorption following topical administration [F64]. In vitro, about 80-90% of the polar compounds methyl nicotinate rapidly penetrated the skin [F64]. It was demonstrated in excised skin of hairless mice that methyl nicotinate can effectively bypass the stratum corneum layer of the skin [F64]. In humans, nicotinic acid and nicotinamide were shown to be rapidly absorbed from the stomach and intestine via a sodium carrier-mediated mechanism at low concentrations [F64].

Half-life

In vitro, the half-life of methyl nicotinate in the dermis was 3 to 10 minutes .
[A33028]

Protein binding

No pharmacokinetic data available.

Volume of distribution

According to the animal studies, nicotinic acid is mainly concentrated in the liver, kidneys, and adipose tissue [F64].

Metabolism

Methyl nicotinate undergoes ester hydrolysis to form nicotinic acid and methanol [F64]. The hydrolysis is thought to be mediated by nonspecific α-naphthylacetate-esterase at the dermis layer of the skin .
[A33027]

Route of elimination

Following epicutaneous administration of small radiolabelled dose of methyl nicotinate in human volunteers, approximately 15% of the dose was recovered in the urine within 108 hours after treatment [F63]. The excretion of nicotinic acid mainly takes place in the kidneys [F63].

Clearance

No pharmacokinetic data available.

Scientific references(2)

Muller B., Kasper M., Surber C., Imanidis G.

Permeation, metabolism and site of action concentration of nicotinic acid derivatives in human skin.

European Journal of Pharmaceutical Sciences

200320(2):181-195. doi: 10.1016/s0928-0987(03)00179-9

PMID: 14550884 DOI: 10.1016/s0928-0987(03)00179-9

Roskos K.V., Bircher A.J., Maibach H.I., Guy R.H.

Pharmacodynamic measurements of methyl nicotinate percutaneous absorption: the effect of aging on microcirculation.

British Journal of Dermatology

1990122(2):165-171. doi: 10.1111/j.1365-2133.1990.tb08262.x

PMID: 2317445 DOI: 10.1111/j.1365-2133.1990.tb08262.x

Experimental properties(4)

Chemical identifiers

CAS, UNII, InChI Key and database cross-references

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Linked compound data from DrugBank Open Data (CC BY-NC 4.0)