DMAA 1-3 Dimethylamylamine.
DMAA 1-3 Dimethylamylamine supplementation for targeted health support. Powerful sympathomimetic stimulant. Releases norepinephrine, constricts blood vessels, increases heart rate and blood pressure. Was used for energy and weight loss.
Reviewed March 2026
- Category
- Nootropic
What DMAA 1-3 Dimethylamylamine is, and what it does.
- Does it work
- This is not a shopper decision any more. Regulators removed it from dietary supplements, and the alertness it produced came with raised heart rate and blood pressure.
- How much to take
- DO NOT TAKE. Previously used at 25-75mg, which is a dangerous range.
- Time to feel it
- Minutes. It is an indirect releasing amine, so the stimulant effect and the rise in heart rate and blood pressure arrive together within about half an hour.
- The first dose
- Intense stimulation, euphoria, increased heart rate, vasoconstriction. Risk of cardiovascular events.
- With regular use
- Unknown but concerning. Cardiovascular damage possible. Deaths reported.
- How well tolerated
- Not well tolerated. It raises heart rate and blood pressure by design, and serious cardiovascular events have been reported. Regulators removed it from dietary supplements.
- How it feels
- Intense energy. Too intense. Heart pounding, anxiety, potentially dangerous.
- The overlooked benefit
- The useful fact here is not a benefit: a geranium or Pelargonium name on an ingredient panel is how this synthetic amine got listed, so the plant name tells you nothing.
25 to 50mg a day is where DMAA 1-3 Dimethylamylamine works.
Source: FDA Warning Letters, 2012-2013; Schilling et al., Drug Test Analysis, 2013
The proof, claim by claim.
These words describe the research, not the molecule's worth. Research strength is how much work stands behind one claim, and it is never a product score.
- Powerful stimulantPharmacologically documented
- Well tolerated in supplementsFDA ban, deaths, cardiovascular events
- Natural from geraniumScientific analysis found no natural source
Questions people ask about DMAA 1-3 Dimethylamylamine.
- Is it still legal?
- No. FDA banned it in 2013. Products containing it are illegal in the US.
- Why was it banned?
- Associated with deaths and serious cardiovascular events including heart attacks and strokes.
- Can I still find it?
- On black market or shady supplement sites. These are illegal and quality is unknown.
- Did it work for energy?
- Yes, powerfully. That was the problem. Too powerful, too dangerous.
- What are safer alternatives?
- Caffeine, tyrosine, B vitamins. Less intense but actually safe.
- Was it really from geranium?
- Companies claimed it was natural from geranium. This was debunked. It's synthetic.
Why these belong in the same formula. Each row says what the basis is, from settled biochemistry through to a trial that measured the pair.
An indirect sympathomimetic amine raises circulating noradrenaline activity while caffeine blocks adenosine receptors and raises catecholamine tone by a separate route. The cardiovascular effects add up rather than cancel, so heart rate and blood pressure responses to the pair are larger than to either alone. This is a reason to flag the combination, not to formulate it.
Tyrosine is hydroxylated to L-DOPA and then decarboxylated to dopamine and onward to noradrenaline. An agent that works by displacing stored noradrenaline depends on those stores existing. Supplying precursor does not make the releasing agent gentler; if anything it supports the pool the agent draws on.
Theanine is used in stimulant formulas on reports that it softens jitteriness. Any such effect is subjective and does not touch the cardiovascular response an indirect sympathomimetic produces. Pairing it here would change how a dose feels without changing what it does to heart rate or blood pressure.
Dietary nitrate is reduced to nitrite and then to nitric oxide, which relaxes vascular smooth muscle. Indirect sympathomimetic stimulation pushes the other way through alpha-adrenergic vasoconstriction. The net blood pressure response to the pair is unpredictable rather than neutral, which is the opposite of a useful cancellation.
A long-acting stimulant taken late works against a compound taken to bring sleep onset forward. The conflict is one of timing rather than of receptor chemistry. Stacking them signals a dosing schedule problem more than a formulation idea.
Talk to a doctor before taking DMAA 1-3 Dimethylamylamine if any of these apply to you: Banned/controlled substance, Not a legal supplement, Dangerous - FDA enforcement action. These are flags to check first, not effects DMAA 1-3 Dimethylamylamine is known to cause.
Not medical advice. Show the label to your pharmacist.What DMAA 1-3 Dimethylamylamine actually does.
It is a small synthetic amine that pushes stored adrenaline-type signals out of nerve endings instead of acting on a receptor itself.
Because of how it works, it raises heart rate and blood pressure.
Taking it repeatedly empties the supply it depends on, so the effect fades.
Made in a factory, it comes out as a mix of mirror-image forms, and the milligram number on a label does not describe that mix.
Where DMAA 1-3 Dimethylamylamine comes from.
This is a lab-made stimulant amine, not something pressed out of a plant. It is made from ordinary industrial chemicals and sold as a salt powder, and a geranium name on the label does not tell you the substance came from a plant.
Chemically synthesised. The molecule is identical to the one a plant or an animal makes, and building it deliberately means a known purity, a fixed dose and no crop contaminants. For several nutrients this is the only route that reaches a usable amount.
The carbon skeleton is a branched hexanamine built from ordinary industrial intermediates. Nothing in the route requires plant material.
Routes described in the chemical literature form the amine from a methylhexanone by reductive amination or an equivalent step. Because the molecule carries two stereocentres, the product is a mixture of stereoisomers whose ratio depends on the route and the conditions.
The volatile free base is purified and then converted to the hydrochloride, which is the handleable solid used in blends.
Milled salt blended into a powder or filled into capsules.
Manufacturers rarely disclose the synthetic route, the stereoisomer ratio or the identity testing behind a botanical descriptor on the panel, and none of those can be read off a label.
The forms it comes in.
The essence, in one line each.
- Oral 1,3-dimethylamylamine given to men raised blood pressure and produced measurable blood concentrations over several hours, with heart rate largely unchanged.Clinical trial. Schilling et al., 2013 (BMC pharmacology & toxicology). PMID 24090077 ↗
These are the studies our verdict leans on, chosen from the 30 we read for DMAA 1-3 Dimethylamylamine. The full linked list is below.
FDA Disclaimer: These statements have not been evaluated by the Food and Drug Administration. This information is for educational purposes only and is not intended to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any disease. Consult your healthcare provider before starting any supplement regimen.