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L-citrulline malate
An amino acid your body converts into arginine, the building block for nitric oxide. That is the mechanism described in our file, not an authorised claim: citrulline malate carries no authorised EU claim, and EFSA looked at its exercise performance claim twice and rejected it. It sits in one formula, at the low end of the doses used in sport studies, and we do not attribute an effect to it.
WHAT WE ARE ALLOWED TO SAY
No authorised claim. EFSA said no, twice.
There is no health claim for citrulline malate on the EU register, so there is no wording for us to quote. EFSA assessed the exercise performance claim put forward for it and rejected it, in 2012 and again in 2014 (EFSA Journal 2014;12(7):3650). Our file records the reason as evidence that did not agree from study to study. It never made it into Regulation 432/2012.There is no health claim for citrulline malate on the EU register. EFSA rejected its exercise performance claim in 2012 and again in 2014, so there is nothing for us to quote.
You will read that citrulline improves your performance or eases muscle soreness. Exercise performance is exactly the claim EFSA rejected, and nothing about soreness is authorised either. In Pre-workout it sits next to creatine, whose performance claim is authorised, but no claim on that formula comes from the citrulline.
WHY 2:1 MALATE
No claim to protect. Only the studied form.
No form of citrulline carries an authorised claim, so the form is not a claim argument and we do not use it as one. We specify L-citrulline DL-malate at two parts citrulline to one of malate, because it is the ratio most studied in the sport literature. The malate is part of the cycle your cells use to make energy; our file calls its contribution theoretical, and so do we.
Two parts citrulline to one of malic acid, the ratio most used in sport. Soluble in water at around 300 g per litre, stable in liquid, with an acidic taste.
Plain citrulline, without the malate. Our notes keep it for use outside sport, at around 3 g a day. For scale, 6 to 8 g of the malate carries roughly 3 to 5 g of citrulline itself.
Citrulline skips the first pass through the liver and raises arginine in your blood more efficiently than arginine taken by mouth. So we do not put both in one formula, and our notes say to avoid AAKG where possible.
Our files record about 80% of it absorbed, better than L-arginine, but that figure is not traced to a checked source yet, so we do not quote it as fact. Absorption is not a claim either way. The choice of form is about being the one the sport literature has studied, nothing more.Our files give about 80% absorbed, but the figure is not traced to a checked source, so we quote none. The choice is about the studied form, nothing more.
WHERE IT APPEARS
One of the twenty-nine carries citrulline.
It appears only in Pre-workout, next to creatine, beta-alanine, caffeine and vitamin B3. The 6 g it carries is the low end of the 6 to 8 g used before training in the sport literature we hold, and below the 8 g our dose table records as the minimum effective dose. The formula is taken 30 to 60 minutes before you train, at most once a day and never after 16:00, it runs in cycles of up to 24 weeks with a pause of at least 4, and it has its own exclusions. They are on its own page.
THE CEILING
No official limit. And no engine rule for it yet.
EFSA has not set an upper intake level for citrulline malate, and there is no NRV. Our file says to stay with the standard doses from the clinical literature. Pre-workout is the only formula that carries it, so 6 g is also your total from us. Our notes set 8 g a day as the most you should get if it ever sat in two formulas at once, but that is not written as a rule in the engine yet, and we would rather tell you that than imply a check that is not there.EFSA has not set an upper limit for citrulline malate and there is no NRV. Pre-workout is the only formula that carries it, so 6 g is your total from us.
The sport literature we hold uses 6 to 8 g of citrulline malate before training. Arginine in your blood peaks 30 to 60 minutes after you take it, and Pre-workout is taken 30 to 60 minutes before training, at most once a day. Its half-life is about an hour; it is cleared mainly through the kidneys.
Our file describes it as well tolerated. Stomach discomfort is rare at standard doses; nausea and bloating appear above 10 g taken at once. No tingling, unlike beta-alanine, and no significant water retention. No safe upper level has been set formally, though short studies used up to 15 g a day.
In pregnancy and breastfeeding there is not enough data: avoid it. There is not enough data under 18 or with cancer either. Take care with moderate to severe kidney disease, since it is cleared through the kidneys, and with low blood pressure. With liver disease, ask a doctor first; with anticoagulants, a little caution. Pre-workout itself excludes pregnancy, breastfeeding, under 18, heart disease and liver disease.
WHAT IT REACTS WITH
Documented pairs, not hunches.
Citrulline malate is one of the 140 ingredients in our library, so it has 139 possible partners. We have documented 5 of them, out of the 443 pairs on file. Three are classed as synergy: beta-alanine, which shares Pre-workout with it, and L-carnitine are complementary, and L-arginine is the redundant one. Its other formula partners, creatine, caffeine and vitamin B3, are not documented pairs yet (our file notes caffeine as a preliminary, unchecked synergy).
Raising arginine is what citrulline already does, and it does it more efficiently. Both in one formula would be redundant, so we use citrulline as the route to nitric oxide, and where arginine is needed for a specific reason, citrulline is not added.
Charcoal binds it in the gut and lowers how much you absorb, so it stays at least 2 hours away. Psyllium husk reduces absorption slightly, so it stays at least 1 hour away.
Do not take it with sildenafil, tadalafil or vardenafil, or with nitrates such as nitroglycerin or isosorbide: their effect on nitric oxide adds up and can drop your blood pressure. Our file also notes it can add to the effect of blood pressure medication and slightly raise the bleeding risk with anticoagulants.
None of citrulline's medication interactions is in our drug table yet: the warning above comes from its own file and its label warning, not from a checked pair. Across the library, 443 of the 9,730 possible pairs are documented, which is 4.55%. The rest are not "safe", they are simply unchecked, and we would rather write that down than let the number look like a badge.None of citrulline's medication interactions is in our drug table yet. Across the library, 443 of the 9,730 possible pairs are documented, which is 4.55%. The rest are not safe, they are simply unchecked.
SOURCES
Everything on this page, with its reference.
Reviewed by VION nutrition team · last reviewed 16 September 2026
140 INGREDIENTS · 64 IN USE TODAY
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