L-citrulline

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The short answer

Raises arginine and nitric-oxide availability; may modestly affect blood flow or some exercise outcomes.

Evidence and scope: Conditional or population-specific
This status does not grade the ingredient for every goal, outcome, or person.
Important limitation: Benefit depends on the population, formulation, baseline status, and objective; results should not be generalized.
Before deciding: Key concern: Nitrates, PDE5 inhibitors, blood-pressure medicines, hypotension, kidney disease, and surgery require caution.

01 / PRACTICAL GUIDE

Dose, absorption, and combinations

These are indication-specific reference or studied ranges—not a personalized prescription. Start with the objective, then check the form, label, medicines, and health conditions.

Reference range by objective

Sports performance3–6 g/day; 6 g before exercise is common

Reference or studied range—not a personalized prescription. The product label or a clinician may specify a different dose.

Dose source ↗

More is not automatically better. A clinician or product label may specify a different amount.

Absorption / solubilityWater-soluble

Water-soluble or readily water-dispersible. This does not mean excess is always harmless.

How it is commonly taken

Take 60–90 minutes before exercise when used acutely.

Do not combine casually

Nitrates, PDE5 inhibitors, blood-pressure medicines, hypotension, kidney disease, and surgery require caution.

Dose and use source ↗

Dose and use links lead to primary or official source material. Search links are discovery tools, not proof that every returned paper applies.

02 / EVIDENCE

What the research says

We keep supportive, mixed, negative, safety, and contextual findings together. The headline never replaces the underlying papers.

1research papers in this ledger

10unique primary studies represented

—unique participants represented

These are audited counts for this JIVANA collection, not search-result totals. Participants are counted once when multiple papers use the same cohort; review papers are not added again to participant totals.

Open the research timelineResearch timeline

Entries are ordered by publication year. A study period appears only when the source reports it.

2022

Does not support the tested claimPMID 36079738

Citrulline supplementation and aerobic exercise performance

Citrulline did not improve aerobic performance, perceived exertion, oxygen-uptake kinetics, or lactate. Ten small studies do not support a reliable aerobic-performance claim.

Published: 202210 primary studies represented

Study design and methods

Design: Systematic review and meta-analysis of 10 placebo-controlled studies
Population: Adults performing aerobic exercise; the abstract did not report a pooled participant total
Intervention: Citrulline supplementation versus placebo without other supplements
Outcome: Aerobic performance, perceived exertion, oxygen-uptake kinetics, and lactate

Open research record ↗

Unscreened discovery appendix—not evidence62 candidate publicationsSearch run: Aug 21, 2026

Complete for the displayed PubMed query at the search timestamp—not for all databases or every possible synonym. Candidates can be irrelevant, duplicate the same study, or report negative findings. They are never summed as evidence or participants until screened.

03 / SOURCES

Start with the source material

Official evidence overviewPubMed bounded human-evidence search Live PubMed discovery searchNational Library of Medicine

The live search is for discovery only. Search-result counts change and are not included in the audited totals above.

Recent PubMed discovery recordsDirect links to the first 12 records returned by the reproducible search. These are discovery candidates—not reviewed summaries or a count of supportive findings.

04 / EXPERT CONTEXT

Expert context—not evidence

Expert positions are dated context—not scientific evidence. They never raise the evidence status or become consensus by repetition.

No direct, source-verified endorsement is currently recorded. Research authorship or discussion alone is not treated as endorsement.