Hordenine (N,N-dimethyltyramine) is a stimulant-like amine found in sprouted barley and beer. It is added to some pre-workout and weight-loss products.
Also known as: N,N-dimethyltyramine, hordenine HCl, barley alkaloid.
We found no trials of hordenine supplements in people, so there is no studied amount to list. Testing has found it in US sports supplements (Zhao 2018).
FDA's dietary supplement ingredient directory lists hordenine as a new dietary ingredient that requires a premarket safety notification, for which none has been submitted, and links a May 2022 warning letter to a seller (FDA).
What is known: in 4 volunteers drinking beer with about 0.075 mg of hordenine per kg of body weight, blood hordenine peaked within an hour and had a half-life of about 53 to 66 minutes; the authors judged these levels too low to act directly on the brain's dopamine D2 receptor (Sommer 2020). A 1992 study found hordenine can cross-react with urine drug screening tests, including morphine screens; the authors note beer as the main human source and describe confirmation tests that tell hordenine apart from opiates (Singh 1992). We found no trials of hordenine supplements in people.
Safety in people at supplement amounts is not known. Athletes should note that WADA bans "phenethylamine and its derivatives" as stimulants, though the list does not name hordenine.
In 4 people drinking beer (about 0.075 mg of hordenine per kg), free hordenine peaked within 60 minutes and had a half-life of about 53 to 66 minutes (Sommer 2020). That was a dietary amount in beer, not a supplement dose, so we do not list it as the half-life.
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