PURE Citrulline-Malate Capsules

What is Citrulline-Malate?

Citrulline is an amino acid, whose name is derived from citrullus, the Latin word for watermelon. The existence of the amino acid has been known since the late 19th century – however, it was first isolated from watermelons and described in detail at the beginning of the 20th century by Japanese researchers. Watermelons are considered to this day an important and natural source of citrulline.

Fundamentally, citrulline is an important intermediate in the urea cycle, the pathway through which mammals excrete ammonia by converting it into urea.

Citrulline also arises as a by-product of the enzymatic production of nitric oxide (NO) from the amino acid arginine, catalysed by nitric oxide synthase. In this way, citrulline also serves the body as a starting material for the formation of NO (nitric oxide), since it is converted back into arginine via the urea cycle.

With regard to citrulline supplementation, it was shown using a mouse model that citrulline raises arginine levels even more than arginine itself. This is because arginine undergoes extensive metabolism by intestinal cells and only a fraction of it enters the bloodstream. Citrulline, however, can be converted directly into arginine to a large extent, which in turn serves NO synthesis in the body.

Conclusions: Citrulline supplementation is more efficient at increasing arginine availability than arginine supplementation itself in mice.

– Source

Citrulline-malate is a special form of citrulline bound to malic acid, which gives apples their characteristic tartness. The compound gained greater recognition about 20 years ago when a human study, published in the British Journal of Sports Medicine, demonstrated using magnetic resonance spectroscopy that the administration of citrulline-malate improved muscle energy production via mitochondria.

Both the rate of oxidative ATP production in muscles during training and the rate of PCr recovery after training increase in participants who received citrulline/malate for 15 days. This positive effect of citrulline/malate at the oxidative level can be mediated by malate, an intermediate of the tricarboxylic acid cycle.

The researchers hypothesised that this is not due per se to citrulline, but rather to malic acid (malate), which can be converted into the citric acid cycle – the citric acid cycle being an essential component of muscle energy production.

Malate is dehydrated to oxaloacetate in the citric acid cycle, the concentration of which is one of the most important control factors for the rate of aerobic ATP production.

The Effect of Citrulline Malate

To this day, the effect of citrulline-malate is being studied specifically in the context of strength and endurance sport – with mixed results. No clear intake recommendation for athletes – such as with creatine – can be derived from the results.

Nevertheless, citrulline-malate remains one of the more interesting supplements, with possibly ergogenic effects, especially in the context of high-intensity training sessions and competitions.

These data suggest that taking citrulline-malate before competition can improve the performance of tennis players. However, this study used a controlled laboratory environment, so an investigation of the direct application to performance on the tennis court should be considered.

– Source of the RCT study from 2016

We offer citrulline capsules in the context of our PURE series. Due to production reasons, we had to resort to an excipient, silica. 5 capsules provide 2 g citrulline with just under 3 g citrulline-malate.