Dicaffeine malate
Dicaffeine malate is caffeine bound to malic acid, usually listed as Infinergy. Its molecular weight works out to about 74 percent caffeine, so 100 mg delivers roughly 74 mg of caffeine. The compound itself has never been studied in humans.
What the research shows
No sound research in humans.
What is inside it is caffeine, and caffeine is one of the best studied sports supplements. The compound itself has never been studied in humans: PubMed returns zero hits for dicaffeine malate and for Infinergy, checked on 30 July 2026, and there is no pharmacokinetic measurement either. The distributor promises longer lasting energy without a crash, less digestive discomfort and appetite suppression, without a single reference to research. The figure that circulates, a half-life of five to six hours against three to four hours for plain caffeine, already goes wrong on the plain caffeine side: EFSA arrives at an average of about four hours, with a range of two to eight hours between people. That spread between people is larger than the difference being claimed. Research into other delivery forms of caffeine, such as chewing gum and mouth rinses, shows that the form mainly changes the speed of absorption while total absorption over time stays the same (Wickham et al., 2018). What has been measured is how poorly labels report caffeine: across 52 pre-workouts, 22 of the 36 products that declared caffeine were off by more than 20 percent, and six contained caffeine that was not declared at all (da Costa et al., 2022).
Who it makes sense for: No reason for anyone to pick a product over it, since it delivers caffeine and nothing beyond that has been shown. Anyone sensitive to caffeine, or close to 400 mg a day, does benefit from converting this line on the label before adding things up.
How we weigh evidenceClinical dosage
Origin
SyntheticBoth building blocks occur in food: caffeine in coffee, tea, cocoa and guarana, malic acid in apples and other fruit. The bond between them is made in a factory and occurs in no food at all. Creative Compounds sells it under the Infinergy brand name.
Safety
EFSA puts the ceiling for healthy adults at 400 mg of caffeine per day and 200 mg in a single dose. For pregnant women it is 200 mg per day. Dicaffeine malate counts fully towards that, since 100 mg is about 74 mg of caffeine. A serving with 250 mg of anhydrous caffeine plus 100 mg of dicaffeine malate therefore lands at roughly 324 mg: four fifths of the daily ceiling in one go, and well over the 200 mg EFSA names for a single moment. Coffee or tea on the same day comes on top of that.
For comparison
Anhydrous caffeine is 100 percent caffeine, dicaffeine malate about 74 percent. That follows from the molecular weights: two caffeine molecules of 194.19 g/mol to one malic acid molecule of 134.09 g/mol, so 388.38 out of 522.47 grams. Suppliers round it to 75 percent. So 100 mg of dicaffeine malate equals roughly 74 mg of caffeine, slightly less than a cup of coffee. On a label with 250 mg of anhydrous caffeine and 100 mg of dicaffeine malate you read 250 on the caffeine line, while the serving comes to about 324 mg.
Dosage by weight and gender
The 50 to 150 mg per serving seen on labels refers to dicaffeine malate as a substance and is no clinical threshold. Convert it to caffeine first by multiplying by 0.74, then add the other caffeine sources in the same product. The threshold that does come from research applies to total caffeine: 3 to 6 mg per kg of body weight (Guest et al., 2021). For 70 kg that is 210 to 420 mg, for 90 kg 270 to 540 mg. If dicaffeine malate were the only source you would need 280 to 570 mg of it, far more than any product contains. In practice it always sits next to plain caffeine, so the sum is what sets the dose.
Scientific sources
The clinical dosages on this page are based on peer-reviewed research.
- International society of sports nutrition position stand: caffeine and exercise performanceGuest NS et al. (2021)Funded by: Meerdere auteurs zitten in wetenschappelijke adviesraden van supplementenfabrikanten en de ISSN zelf ontvangt beurzen van bedrijven die cafeïneproducten verkopen; zie de belangenverklaring bij het artikel.
- Administration of Caffeine in Alternate FormsWickham KA et al. (2018)Funded by: Verschenen in een tijdschriftsupplement dat betaald is door het Gatorade Sports Science Institute; co-auteur Spriet ontving daarvan een vergoeding.
- Pre-workout supplements marketed in Brazil: Caffeine quantification and caffeine daily intake assessmentda Costa BRB et al. (2022)Funded by: Gefinancierd door de Braziliaanse overheidsinstellingen CNPq en CAPES, zonder betrokkenheid van een fabrikant.
Pre-workouts with Dicaffeine malate
No products found with this ingredient
We keep the dosages and values on this page as accurate as possible based on selected studies. New research may change these values. Nothing on this page is medical advice. If you have any doubts, always consult a doctor.