← The FormularyMuscle & performanceL-citrulline
Also known as Citrulline malateThe one the body prefers when it wants more arginine.
The least glamorous thing in the category and the one with the cleanest mechanism. It will not make you look different tomorrow. It is a daily input to a system that works on the timescale of weeks.
An amino acid found in watermelon and made in the body. It is the raw material for arginine, which is the raw material for nitric oxide.
Swallowed arginine is largely broken down in the gut and liver before it reaches the blood. Citrulline is not — it passes through and the kidneys convert it into arginine. That is why it raises arginine more reliably than arginine does.
Supports normal blood flow by feeding the pathway that produces nitric oxide, the signal that tells a blood vessel to relax.
Anyone taking the daily half of the blood-flow routine rather than the pre-training half.
Daily, with water, timing irrelevant. It stacks with dietary nitrate rather than duplicating it — different route, same endpoint.
Nothing acute. This is a baseline ingredient; the honest answer is that you notice its absence more than its presence.
Studied mostly in exercise contexts. Read the doses: most trials run well above what a general daily formula provides.
Read the labelNot an erection product and not a treatment for anything. Speak to a doctor first if you take blood-pressure or nitrate medication.
Evidence grades describe how well an ingredient is studied — A well-supported, C emerging — not a promise of results. Educational, not medical advice. Doses are typical ranges; follow the label on the product.