Arginine: uses, dosing, side effects & brands
Arginine is a medicine sold in the U.S. under one brand, for acidosis and alkalosis. Below: what the FDA label says, every product that contains it, what the pills look like, and its recall record.
Key facts
- Treats
- Acidosis and Alkalosis
- Available as
- Injectable
- Sold as
- R-Gene 10
- Prescription?
- Prescription only
- Generic available?
- Not in our catalog
How arginine is dosed
From the FDA label for R-Gene 10 (application NDA016931). Other arginine products — different forms, different strengths — are dosed differently. Follow the label for the one you were prescribed.
Adult Dosage The recommended adult dose is 30 g arginine hydrochloride (300 mL of R-Gene ® 10) administered by intravenous infusion over 30 minutes. The total dose should not exceed 30 g arginine hydrochloride. See Directions for Use for preparation instructions. Pediatric Dosage The recommended pediatric dose is 0.5 g/kg arginine hydrochloride (5 mL/kg of R-Gene ® 10) administered by intravenous infusion over 30 minutes. The total dose should not exceed 30 g arginine hydrochloride. • For patients weighing 59 kg or less , withdraw a weight based dose from a sealed R-Gene ® 10 bottle and place in a separate container for intravenous infusion to avoid the inadvertent delivery and administration of the total volume from the commercially available container. See Directions for Use for preparation instructions. • For patients weighing 60 kg or more , the recommended dose is 30 g arginine hydrochloride (300 mL of R-Gene ® 10). See Directions for Use for preparation instructions Test Procedure The intravenous infusion of R-Gene ® 10 is a part of the test for measurement of pituitary reserve of human growth hormone and, for successful administration of the test, clinical conditions and procedures should be as follows: 1. The test should be scheduled in the morning following a normal night's sleep, and an overnight fast should continue through the test period. 2. Patients must be…
Arginine side effects
Adverse reactions associated with 1670 infusions in premarketing studies were as follows: Non-specific side effects consisting of nausea, vomiting, headache, flushing, numbness and local venous irritation were reported in approximately 3% of the patients. One patient had an allergic reaction which was manifested as a confluent macular rash with reddening and swelling of the hands and face. The rash subsided rapidly after the infusion was terminated and 50 mg of diphenhydramine were administered. One patient had an apparent decrease in platelet count from 150,000 to 60,000. One patient with a history of acrocyanosis had an exacerbation of this condition following infusion of R-Gene ® 10. Post Marketing Experience: The following adverse events have been reported during post-marketing use: extravasation leading to burn-like reaction and/or skin necrosis requiring surgical intervention, hypersensitivity reactions including anaphylaxis, and hematuria that in some cases occurred 1–2 days after an R-Gene ® 10 administration. Because these adverse events are reported voluntarily from a population of uncertain size, it is not always possible to reliably estimate their frequency or establish a causal relationship to drug exposure.
Who shouldn’t take arginine
The administration of R-Gene ® 10 is contraindicated in persons having known hypersensitivity to any ingredient in this product.
Every arginine product we track (1)
Same active ingredient — different manufacturer, form, price and FDA recall record. That last one is what our independent score measures.
Only one: R-Gene 10.
Combination products containing arginine
A combination is a different drug — different dosing, different warnings. It is listed here so you can find it, not so you can substitute it.
Arginine recalls
From the FDA Enforcement database. A recall covers specific lots — not the drug as a whole.
How long arginine keeps
No arginine label we read sets a separate limit for after opening, but they do specify how it must be stored — and the stability behind any date assumes those conditions.
Does arginine expire? The in-use limits and storage rules from its labelsWhat people report to the FDA about arginine
The FDA Adverse Event Reporting System (FAERS) collects reports from patients and clinicians. It holds 204 reports naming arginine, and the FDA flagged 78% of those reports as serious. The effects reported most often — leaving out reports about overdose, misuse or the condition being treated, which dominate the raw list for common medicines:
- diarrhoea12 reports
- hypotension10 reports
- headache9 reports
- nausea9 reports
- pyrexia9 reports
- fatigue8 reports
- vomiting7 reports
- arthralgia6 reports
Read these as a signal, not a rate. A report does not mean arginine caused the effect — anyone can file one, and many describe people taking several medicines for several conditions. Crucially there is no denominator: FAERS does not record how many people took the drug, so these counts cannot be turned into “X% of patients” — a bigger number often just means a more widely used or more talked-about drug. Duplicates exist, and publicity drives reporting. For what is actually established, read the FDA label section above.
Source: openFDA drug/event (FAERS), retrieved July 25, 2026.
Related calculators
Frequently asked questions
What is arginine?
R-Gene 10 (Arginine Hydrochloride) is a medication used to treat Acidosis, Alkalosis.
Can you take arginine with other medicines?
It depends on the medicine. We check it against the FDA labels rather than guessing: our interaction checker searches each drug's own label for the other and quotes what it says, naming the section it came from. Run arginine against whatever else you take — and remember that a label not naming a drug is not the same as that combination being safe.
What forms does arginine come in?
Across the brands we track, arginine is currently marketed as injectable, per the FDA's National Drug Code Directory. Each form is dosed differently — follow the label for the exact product you were prescribed.
Is there a generic arginine?
We do not currently list a generic-labelled arginine product. That does not always mean none exists — it means none appears under a generic name in the FDA data we track. Ask your pharmacist.
Has arginine been recalled?
The FDA's Enforcement database lists 2 recall records whose product description mentions arginine. The most recent: L-Arginine HCl for Injection (Jul 30, 2025). A recall applies to specific lots, not to the drug as a whole — check the record for the affected lot numbers.
Cite this page
- APA
- pharmaranks. (2026, July 24). Arginine: uses, dosing, side effects & brands. https://pharmaranks.com/drugs/arginine
- MLA
- “Arginine: uses, dosing, side effects & brands.” pharmaranks, 24 July 2026, https://pharmaranks.com/drugs/arginine.
We summarise public FDA and NIH sources — for a clinical claim, cite the primary source we link to as well.
Sources: FDA openFDA drug label, National Drug Code Directory, and Enforcement (recall) database. This page reproduces public FDA data and is not medical advice. Dosing is set by your prescriber.
Read the full FDA label for arginine on DailyMed (NIH) ↗.