Supplements

DMHA (Octodrine)

Updated · 26 sources

DMHA (1,5-dimethylhexylamine), also called octodrine or 2-amino-6-methylheptane, is a branched-chain amine stimulant closely related to DMAA. It was studied in the mid-20th century as an inhaled bronchodilator and decongestant, then largely disappeared from medicine. Around 2015–2016 it came back as an ingredient in pre-workout and weight-loss products as DMAA was being phased out.

The single most important fact: FDA says DMHA does not qualify as a dietary ingredient, calls it an unsafe food additive and considers supplements containing it adulterated. WADA prohibits it in competition. No controlled human trial of its benefits or safety as a supplement was found, and the human safety record consists of a few case reports in which other stimulants or uncertain product contents complicate the picture.

This page summarizes what regulators, product analyses and the limited pharmacology and case literature report. It is for education only and is not medical advice.

Property Detail
Class Aliphatic amine stimulant (sympathomimetic)
Chemical name 6-methylheptan-2-amine; C8H19N; 129.24 g/mol
Former medical use Inhaled bronchodilator and decongestant; multi-ingredient oral products in Germany containing 8.2, 16.5 or 33 mg
Amounts measured in supplements 18–145.5 mg per serving across US analyses; many labeled products contained none
Controlled human trials None found; no trials listed on ClinicalTrials.gov
Half-life No human half-life found
US status FDA: not a dietary ingredient, unsafe food additive; 12 warning letters listed, 2019–2020
Other regulators Australia: Schedule 10; New Zealand: committee recommended prescription-only status
WADA status Prohibited in competition; S6.B specified stimulant

What it is

Chemistry and naming

PubChem lists octodrine as 6-methylheptan-2-amine, a simple branched-chain amine with no ring (PubChem). It has the same basic layout as DMAA, with the amine on carbon 2 and one methyl branch, but its carbon chain is longer (PubChem).

Property Octodrine (1,5-DMHA) DMAA (1,3-DMAA)
Systematic name 6-methylheptan-2-amine 4-methylhexan-2-amine
Formula C8H19N C7H17N
Molecular weight 129.24 g/mol 115.22 g/mol
WADA 2026 category S6.B S6.B

New Zealand’s medicines committee was advised that DMHA, DMAA and DMBA are structurally similar and expected to have similar pharmacological properties (Medsafe committee minutes, 2019). That is an expectation based on structure, not a head-to-head finding.

The names on labels are unreliable:

  • “DMHA” can point to two isomers. The same committee treated 2-amino-6-methylheptane (1,5-dimethylhexylamine, octodrine) and 2-amino-5-methylheptane (1,4-dimethylhexylamine) as separate isomers. FDA lists both chemical names under DMHA (FDA), and one of its warning letters calls the ingredient “2-amino-5-methylheptane (DMHA)” (FDA, NutraCap Labs 2020).
  • “2-aminoisoheptane” is not a precise name. Researchers describe it as a nonspecific term that manufacturers use for octodrine (Cohen et al., JAMA 2022).
  • Similar abbreviations mean different drugs. 1,3-DMAA, 1,4-DMAA and 1,3-DMBA are separate stimulants that have been found in the same product category (Cohen et al., Clin Toxicol 2018).

History

Sources differ slightly on dates. A 1947 pharmacology paper already described the compound (Carrão-Dantas et al., Int J Mol Sci 2026), while a 2018 review and New Zealand’s regulator describe it as developed as a decongestant in the 1950s (Catalani et al., Brain Sci 2018; Medsafe 2019). The record that can be traced is:

  • Inhaled use. It was developed as an inhaled bronchodilator but has never been approved for oral use in the US (Cohen et al. 2022). The Catalani review reports aerosol use for bronchitis and laryngitis and nasal decongestant products under the names Vaporpac and Tickle Tackel Inhaler.
  • Combination medicines. The same review lists Ambredin, a bronchospasm product with aceverine and theophylline studied around 1958–1960, and Ordinal retard, a combination with octopamine and adenosine studied in patients with low blood pressure in 1974. Because these were combinations, they do not isolate octodrine’s effects.
  • Germany. Multi-ingredient oral products contained 8.2, 16.5 or 33 mg of octodrine (Cohen et al. 2022).

The Catalani review describes octodrine as having no current legitimate medical application. In 2019 New Zealand’s regulator noted that no approved medicines there contained it.

Mechanism

The mechanism has not been pinned down. New Zealand’s regulator calls it an α-adrenergic agonist (Medsafe 2019), and the Catalani review describes effects on dopamine and noradrenaline, but a 2026 paper notes that its molecular targets remain poorly resolved (Carrão-Dantas et al. 2026). A computer docking study ranked octodrine as a possible ligand of the norepinephrine transporter, but tested its relative tuaminoheptane in the lab rather than octodrine itself (Schlessinger et al., PNAS 2011).

Pharmacokinetics

Human data are sparse and come mostly from doping-control research:

  • Metabolism. A 2025 report states that octodrine is rapidly metabolized to heptaminol, itself a listed stimulant, which becomes the main compound in blood (Alvarez & Etting, Clin Chim Acta 2025). In a single volunteer, both compounds were positive in urine about 4 hours after a contaminated supplement providing 0.2–0.4 mg of octodrine.
  • Detection window. In a doping-analysis study using oral doses, octodrine was detected in exhaled breath samples over a period of 50 hours, similar to 48 hours for DMAA (Garzinsky et al., Rapid Commun Mass Spectrom 2021). This is a detection time, not a half-life.

We found no published human half-life, bioavailability figure or dose-response data.

What the research shows

Performance and fat loss

We found no controlled human study showing that DMHA improves exercise performance, focus or fat loss. A search of ClinicalTrials.gov in November 2026 returned no registered trials. The 2018 Catalani review also reported no randomized trials, and most of the information it found on use and effects came from bodybuilding websites and forums.

Animal and laboratory data

Older studies describe pressor activity and increased heart rate and contractile amplitude in anesthetized dogs, plus local anesthetic effects (Carrão-Dantas et al. 2026, summarizing Fellows 1947).

The 2026 study exposed zebrafish larvae to octodrine for 2 hours. Heart rates rose at 5 µM, fell progressively at 150 µM and above, and conduction between the heart’s chambers was disrupted at higher levels. At 450 µM, no cardiac activity could be detected. Spontaneous movement fell at much lower concentrations. The authors call this an initial hazard characterization; it does not establish a human dose or risk.

What products actually contain

Analyses of supplements

Study Products tested Octodrine finding
Cohen et al. 2018 6 US brands with labels such as Aconitum kusnezoffii, DMHA or 2-amino-isoheptane 72 ± 7.5 mg per serving; found in one of the six, per the Catalani review, with the others containing different stimulants such as 1,3-DMAA, 1,4-DMAA or 1,3-DMBA
Wang et al. 2018 13 US products listing 1,5-DMHA on the label or website Present in only 4; highest 112 mg per serving
Cohen et al. 2021 17 US brands labeled as containing the stimulant deterenol 18–73 mg per serving in products where found; up to 4 stimulants in one product
Cohen et al. 2022 9 products still sold after FDA warning letters 145.5 mg per scoop in one product and 78.3 mg per capsule in another (313.2 mg at the label’s maximum of 4 capsules)
Crawford et al., Nutrients 2024 44 weight-loss products from on or near 12 US military bases DMHA listed and detected in 3 products from stores within one mile of a base; none from on-base stores; amounts not reported

For comparison, the highest pharmaceutical dose cited in these papers is 33 mg. That is why the authors described 72 mg as more than twice, and 112 mg as more than three times, the top pharmaceutical dose.

Taken together, these studies show errors in both directions. Some products labeled as containing DMHA did not contain it, and others contained stimulants that were not expected from the label. One product named in a 2019 DMHA warning letter contained no octodrine when bought in 2022, but it did contain the unapproved drug omberacetam (Cohen et al. 2022).

The “natural” and walnut claims

Is DMHA from walnut or other plants? The evidence points to synthetic DMHA in the products that have been tested, and we found no analysis confirming octodrine in walnut.

  • Direct test of plants. Wang et al. analyzed 15 Aconitum or Kigelia samples, the plants cited as sources on products, and found no 1,5-DMHA at a detection limit of 25 ng/mL. Octodrine in the products was close to racemic (an equal mix of mirror-image forms, with ratios of 0.9–1.0), and two synthesis byproducts were present. The authors concluded the ingredient was synthetic (Wang et al. 2018). That study did not test walnut.
  • Walnut. The Catalani review says a “natural” form occurs in Juglans regia (walnut bark) and two other plants. By title, however, none of the references attached to that sentence concerns walnut. PubMed and Europe PMC searches in November 2026 found no study measuring octodrine in walnut.
  • Other plant reports. A few papers list octodrine among compounds identified by gas chromatography-mass spectrometry in other plants, such as watercress leaves (Shaheen & Ahmad, J Sep Sci 2020). Such a finding, even if confirmed, would not show that the amounts in supplements come from plants.
  • Regulators. New Zealand’s regulator said there is no clear evidence that octodrine is found in the plants named on Kigelia-labeled products (Medsafe 2019). FDA’s page makes no exception for a plant-labeled source.

Side effects and risks

What is and is not known

No controlled safety data exist for DMHA as a supplement. The available human evidence is low quality, and it does not establish a safe dose.

Case reports

Report Patient Exposure Outcome
Dai et al., CJC Open 2020 59-year-old woman with chest pain and palpitations Imported weight-management supplement; label listed caffeine 60 mg per capsule and dimethylhexylamine (amount not stated); took 3 capsules against a 2-capsule label limit Inverted takotsubo cardiomyopathy (stress-type weakening of the heart muscle); blood pressure 155/109 mm Hg; troponin T up to 0.898 ng/mL; normal coronary arteries; heart tests normal by 2 months
Katuna et al., J Med Toxicol 2023 (meeting abstract 170) 26-year-old woman with chest pain and shortness of breath Two pills of a weight-loss supplement; analysis found octodrine and yohimbine, neither on the label Inverted takotsubo cardiomyopathy; ejection fraction 20%; recovered after 2 hospital days on metoprolol and furosemide

These cases are important signals, but neither isolates DMHA. The first product also contained caffeine, and the report relies on the product label, with no chemical analysis described. Its authors judged the supplement the probable cause (Naranjo score 7). The second product also contained yohimbine, and its authors noted that cardiac harm from octodrine has not been demonstrated in humans.

Recall and reported symptoms

In April 2023, TruVision Health recalled supplements that contained hordenine and/or octodrine. The notice says some consumers reported chest pain, high heart rate, high blood pressure, headache, jitteriness, nausea and vomiting, among other symptoms (FDA recall notice). These reports were not separated by ingredient, and they do not prove causation.

Online users have described mood swings, tremor, anxiety, high blood pressure, shortness of breath, rapid heartbeat and heartburn (Catalani et al. 2018). These accounts are anecdotal and unverified.

Concern by analogy with DMAA

DMAA has been investigated as potentially contributing to hemorrhagic stroke and sudden death (Cohen et al. 2018). Octodrine’s similar structure and its effects in animals are reasons for caution, but they do not prove it carries the same risks in people.

Stimulant combinations

Octodrine has been found or labeled with other stimulants, including caffeine, yohimbine, higenamine and DMAA-like amines. Researchers who found up to 4 experimental stimulants in one product wrote that such mixtures have never been tested in humans (Cohen et al. 2021). We found no current approved product label, so there are no established interaction lists or contraindications. For better-studied stimulants, see ephedrine and synephrine.

United States

FDA states that DMHA does not meet the definition of a dietary ingredient, is not an approved food additive, is not generally recognized as safe and meets no other exception, so it is an unsafe food additive and supplements containing it are adulterated. The page, current as of March 6, 2023, explains that this replaced FDA’s April 2019 position that DMHA was either an un-notified new dietary ingredient or an unsafe food additive (FDA).

  • Warning letters. FDA lists 12 DMHA warning letters: 9 from April 2019, plus one each in September 2019, October 2019 and May 2020. The figure can be confused with FDA’s April 2019 update, which also reported 12 letters, made up of 9 on DMHA and 3 on phenibut (FDA constituent update). An example of the earlier reasoning is the Revital U letter.
  • Court challenge. Hi-Tech Pharmaceuticals sued over its warning letter. In June 2020 a federal district court dismissed the case because a warning letter is not final agency action subject to review. The court did not decide whether DMHA is a lawful ingredient (Hi-Tech v. Hahn, D.D.C. 2020).
  • Effect of the letters. In a study of 31 products that received warning letters over BMPEA, methylsynephrine or DMHA, 1 (3%) was recalled. Nine (29%) were still available a mean of 6 years later, across all three stimulants, and 5 of those 9 contained at least 1 FDA-prohibited ingredient (Cohen et al. 2022).

We found no FDA warning letter on DMHA listed after May 2020, but FDA says its page is not a complete list of its actions.

Australia and New Zealand

Medsafe reports that in October 2017 Australia added “DMBA and other aliphatic alkylamines with stimulant properties including DMHA” to Schedule 10 of its Poisons Standard (Medsafe 2019). New Zealand’s committee described Schedule 10 substances as banned and in October 2019 recommended classifying DMHA and both isomers as prescription medicines (committee minutes). A 2021 Gazette correction refers to a December 2020 classification notice listing them (NZ Gazette 2021).

WADA and drug testing

The WADA 2026 Prohibited List names “Octodrine (1,5-dimethylhexylamine)” and heptaminol as S6.B specified stimulants, prohibited in competition. The class also covers other substances with a similar chemical structure or biological effect. The list makes no exception for plant-labeled sources.

Very small amounts can matter. In one reported case, an athlete had a positive test with urine heptaminol of 141 and 136 ng/mL (samples A and B) and octodrine of 16 ng/mL. A supplement was found to contain octodrine at 16–34 µg/g, or about 0.2–0.4 mg per day at his 13 g daily intake. Contamination was accepted, but he was still banned for 9 months for using supplements bought online (Alvarez & Etting 2025). The first author disclosed serving as the athlete’s expert witness.

Key takeaways

  • Not a lawful supplement ingredient in FDA’s view. FDA considers DMHA an unsafe food additive and supplements containing it adulterated, and it has listed 12 warning letters.
  • No proof of benefit. We found no controlled human study showing improved performance or fat loss, and no registered clinical trials.
  • Safety is largely unknown. Two case reports describe inverted takotsubo cardiomyopathy, but other stimulants were involved in both, and animal or zebrafish data cannot set a safe human dose.
  • Labels are unreliable. Analyses found up to 145.5 mg per serving, above the 33 mg top pharmaceutical dose, while many labeled products contained none or different stimulants.
  • “Natural” claims lack support. Tested Aconitum and Kigelia samples contained none, product chemistry points to synthesis, and we found no analysis confirming octodrine in walnut.
  • Prohibited in sport. WADA lists it under S6.B, and a contaminated product with under 1 mg per day led to a positive test and a 9-month ban in one reported case.

Sources

  1. US Food and Drug Administration. DMHA in Dietary Supplements. Content current as of March 6, 2023. FDA.
  2. US Food and Drug Administration. FDA Acts on Dietary Supplements Containing DMHA and Phenibut. Constituent Update, April 16, 2019. FDA.
  3. US Food and Drug Administration. Warning letter: Revital U International, LLC. CMS 585256. October 16, 2019. FDA.
  4. US Food and Drug Administration. Warning letter: NutraCap Labs LLC. CMS 604298. May 21, 2020. FDA.
  5. US Food and Drug Administration. TruVision Health Recalls Dietary Supplement Products Because of Possible Health Risk. Company announcement, April 27, 2023. FDA.
  6. Hi-Tech Pharmaceuticals, Inc. v. Hahn. Civil Action No. 19-1268 (RBW). Memorandum Opinion. US District Court for the District of Columbia; June 29, 2020. Indexed on govinfo as Hi-Tech Pharmaceuticals, Inc. et al v. Sharpless et al. govinfo.
  7. World Anti-Doping Agency. The 2026 Prohibited List. WADA 2026 Prohibited List.
  8. Medsafe. Classification of octodrine: information about a New Chemical Entity for the Medicines Classification Committee. July 2019. Medsafe.
  9. Medicines Classification Committee. Minutes of the 63rd meeting, October 10, 2019. Medsafe.
  10. New Zealand Gazette. Corrigendum: Classification of Medicines. Notice 2021-go2045. May 26, 2021. NZ Gazette.
  11. National Center for Biotechnology Information. PubChem compound summary for CID 10982, Octodrine. PubChem.
  12. National Center for Biotechnology Information. PubChem compound summary for CID 7753, 1,3-Dimethylamylamine. PubChem.
  13. Catalani V, Prilutskaya M, Al-Imam A, et al. Octodrine: new questions and challenges in sport supplements. Brain Sci. 2018;8(2):34. PubMed.
  14. Cohen PA, Travis JC, Keizers PHJ, Deuster P, Venhuis BJ. Four experimental stimulants found in sports and weight loss supplements: 2-amino-6-methylheptane (octodrine), 1,4-dimethylamylamine (1,4-DMAA), 1,3-dimethylamylamine (1,3-DMAA) and 1,3-dimethylbutylamine (1,3-DMBA). Clin Toxicol (Phila). 2018;56(6):421–426. PubMed.
  15. Wang M, Haider S, Chittiboyina AG, Parcher JF, Khan IA. 1,5-Dimethylhexylamine (octodrine) in sports and weight loss supplements: natural constituent or synthetic chemical? J Pharm Biomed Anal. 2018;152:298–305. PubMed.
  16. Cohen PA, Travis JC, Vanhee C, Ohana D, Venhuis BJ. Nine prohibited stimulants found in sports and weight loss supplements: deterenol, phenpromethamine (Vonedrine), oxilofrine, octodrine, beta-methylphenylethylamine (BMPEA), 1,3-dimethylamylamine (1,3-DMAA), 1,4-dimethylamylamine (1,4-DMAA), 1,3-dimethylbutylamine (1,3-DMBA) and higenamine. Clin Toxicol (Phila). 2021;59(11):975–981. Erratum in: 2022;60(6):671. PubMed.
  17. Cohen PA, Avula B, Katragunta K, Khan I. Recalls, availability, and content of dietary supplements following FDA warning letters. JAMA. 2022;328(4):393–395. PubMed.
  18. Crawford C, Lindsey AT, Avula B, Katragunta K, Khan IA, Deuster PA. Label accuracy and quality of select weight-loss dietary supplements sold on or near US military bases. Nutrients. 2024;16(24). PubMed.
  19. Alvarez JC, Etting I. Heptaminol hair testing to highlight octodrine contamination in supplements, responsible for a doping adverse analytical finding. Clin Chim Acta. 2025;565:120002. PubMed.
  20. Garzinsky AM, Thomas A, Krug O, Thevis M. Probing for the presence of doping agents in exhaled breath using chromatographic/mass spectrometric approaches. Rapid Commun Mass Spectrom. 2021;35(1):e8939. PubMed.
  21. Carrão-Dantas EK, Aljabasini O, Prats E, Felzenszwalb I, Araujo-Lima CF, Raldúa D. Acute octodrine (DMHA) exposure disrupts cardiac function, locomotor activity, and neuronal activity-responsive transcription in zebrafish larvae. Int J Mol Sci. 2026;27(19):8560. PubMed.
  22. Schlessinger A, Geier E, Fan H, et al. Structure-based discovery of prescription drugs that interact with the norepinephrine transporter, NET. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2011;108(38):15810–15815. PubMed.
  23. Shaheen I, Ahmad KS. Chromatographic identification of “green capping agents” extracted from Nasturtium officinale (Brassicaceae) leaves for the synthesis of MoO3 nanoparticles. J Sep Sci. 2020;43(3):598–605. PubMed.
  24. Dai Z, Fukuda T, Kinoshita K, Komiyama N. Inverted takotsubo cardiomyopathy associated with the consumption of a weight management supplement. CJC Open. 2020;2(1):26–29. PubMed.
  25. Katuna JC, Jones J, Riley B. Inverted takotsubo cardiomyopathy from a weight loss supplement (abstract 170). In: 2023 ACMT Annual Scientific Meeting Abstracts, San Diego, CA. J Med Toxicol. 2023;19(2):63–168. PMC.
  26. ClinicalTrials.gov. Search for octodrine, DMHA or dimethylhexylamine; no studies returned, November 8, 2026. ClinicalTrials.gov.