DMAA

1,3-dimethylamylamine / methylhexanamine / geranium extract · Stimulant (banned supplement ingredient)

Research reference only. Pepdex does not sell, supply or track this compound, and nothing here is guidance to use it — this page exists so the evidence and the risks are visible.

What it is

The pre-workout stimulant of the early 2010s — an amphetamine-adjacent pressor agent that powered the era's most notorious supplements until the FDA forced it out. The name still circulates in unregulated products.

How it works

DMAA is a sympathomimetic amine structurally related to amphetamine, which is the fact that determines everything about it. It causes noradrenaline release and vasoconstriction, producing the sharp stimulant effect and the focus that made it the dominant pre-workout ingredient for years. The vasoconstriction is not a side effect of the stimulation — it is the same action, and it is the mechanism behind the blood-pressure spikes, the strokes and the cardiac events that led to its removal from the market.

What human evidence shows

The performance evidence is thin and the harm signal is what made it famous: serious events and deaths temporally associated with DMAA-containing products (including two US Army soldiers, which triggered the military ban that preceded the civilian one) — causation in individual cases was not always established. The "geranium extract" natural-origin claim was tested and debunked — it is synthetic.

The studies, one by one

NONE SHOWN for any legitimate use. It was marketed as a natural geranium extract, and FDA determined it is not a constituent of geranium in any meaningful amount — the substance in products was synthetic.
FDA declared DMAA an unlawful dietary ingredient and pursued enforcement against manufacturers. It is banned in numerous countries.
The harm record is what defines it: FDA received reports of heart problems, nervous system and psychiatric disorders, and deaths associated with DMAA-containing products.
It was implicated in the deaths of two US soldiers, which prompted the military to remove products containing it from base stores and triggered a Department of Defense safety review.
Case reports include haemorrhagic stroke, myocardial infarction and liver injury in young, otherwise healthy users.

Half-life and how long it lasts

Orally active with a sympathomimetic profile similar to amphetamine derivatives. It raises blood pressure sharply through vasoconstriction. It is prohibited in sport and produces doping violations. It still appears in some products sold online despite the enforcement action, sometimes undeclared or under alternative chemical names.

Risks

Documented blood-pressure elevation with case-level reports of stroke and cardiac arrest, sharpest when stacked with caffeine — which is exactly how pre-workouts used it. The FDA concluded it is an illegal and potentially dangerous supplement ingredient.

Who should never touch it

Everyone — an unlawful dietary ingredient with a death record and no legitimate use
Most emphatically anyone with any cardiovascular condition or hypertension
Anyone taking other stimulants, which is how it was almost always sold
Anyone in tested sport, where it is prohibited

Interactions worth knowing

Any other stimulant, including caffeine — and DMAA was almost always sold combined with high-dose caffeine, which is the combination most of the adverse events involved.
MAO inhibitors, where a sympathomimetic can produce hypertensive crisis.
Blood-pressure medication, which it directly opposes.
Exercise itself, which is when it was taken and when cardiovascular demand is already elevated.

Stacking interactions

Documented interactions with other things people research. A compound not listed here does not mean the combination is safe — only that no specific interaction is on file.

CautionClenbuterol