Product Overview
Dragon Pharma L-Carnitine 500 is a vial of levocarnitine solution at 500 mg per millilitre, listed under the ATC code A16AA01 and handled in the catalogue as a nutritional support item. Carnitine itself is not a drug in the anabolic sense and not a hormone: it is a small water-soluble molecule the human body already makes and stores, with a total pool in a 70 kg adult of roughly 20 grams. It carries the L-form only, and that detail is not cosmetic, because the mirror-image d-form is toxic and blocks the transport of fatty acids instead of enabling it.
The physiological job is narrow and well documented. Long-chain fatty acids cannot cross the inner mitochondrial membrane on their own, and carnitine is the shuttle that moves them to the site of beta-oxidation. A person eating a mixed diet rarely runs short of the molecule, and the clinical use of levocarnitine sits with genuine deficiency states rather than with body composition. More than 95 percent of a dose leaves the body through the urine, and taking carnitine as a supplement produces a plasma half-life near 17.4 hours.
Why an injectable version exists is simple arithmetic. Swallowed carnitine reaches the bloodstream at less than 10 percent, so the oral route is limited by absorption rather than by the amount in the capsule. This format removes that barrier, which is the whole argument for a syringe here, and it is also why the product turns up inside combination fat-loss formulas such as Helios. The limit of the argument is evidence: the sources collected for this card contain no demonstration that carnitine alters fat metabolism, changes body weight or reliably improves performance, so the mechanism is real while the outcome claim is not.
Dosage and Administration
Standard bodybuilding amounts for the injection are not established in the sources consulted, and that gap is reported rather than filled. The rows below separate what the references do support from what they do not.
| Starting level | No confirmed sports amount in the sources; the pack is the only fixed figure, at 500 mg/ml |
| Middle level | Not confirmed; the medical setting is treatment of primary and secondary carnitine deficiency rather than performance |
| Upper level | Not confirmed; gastrointestinal tolerance becomes the practical ceiling, with effects emerging around 3 g a day |
| Female | No verified female protocol appears in the references, so no figure is given here |
| Route | Intramuscular or intravenous forms exist, and oral carnitine is also sold; the injected route exists to avoid absorption below 10 percent |
| Dilution | The vial is already a solution, so bacteriostatic water is not part of this product's preparation |
Suggested Stacks
Carnitine is written into combination products rather than used as the headline compound. Each pill opens the corresponding Dragon Pharma page.
What to Expect
- Days 1-3. Nothing noticeable follows an injection. There is no acute sensation to look for.
- Weeks 1-2. Some users describe slightly better training tolerance, and this is explicitly unconfirmed by research rather than a measured effect.
- Weeks 2-4. No fat-burning response has been demonstrated for carnitine in the sources, so visible change at this stage should be credited to diet and training.
- Medical setting. In patients with a diagnosed carnitine deficiency the correction is real and repeatable, which is the one scenario where the nutrient produces a clear result.
- Performance. Evidence on exercise capacity is not conclusive in either direction, so it should not be sold as a training aid on this page.
- Isomer check. Only the L-form belongs in the vial; d-carnitine is toxic because it inhibits fatty acid transport.
- After stopping. Nothing needs to be restarted, because the substance does not act on the hormonal axis at all.
Side Effects and Management
The tolerated range is wide and the reported issues are gastrointestinal, local or cosmetic rather than systemic.
Cycling and Follow-Up
There is no post-cycle therapy for a nutrient, and the box below states that directly instead of borrowing a steroid template.
