 Galanin was first identified from porcine intestinal extracts in 1978 by Professor Viktor Mutt and colleagues at the Karolinska Institute, Sweden using a chemical assay technique that detects peptides according to its C-terminal alanine amide structure.Galanin is so-called because it contains an N-terminal glycine residue and a C-terminal alanine.The structure of galanin was determined in 1983 by the same team, and the cDNA of galanin was cloned from a rat anterior pituitary library in 1987.