Creatine HCl

Creatine hydrochloride (CAS 17050-09-8) is the mono-hydrochloride salt of creatine — N-(aminoiminomethyl)-N-methylglycine hydrochloride, C4H9N3O2·HCl, molecular weight 167.59 g/mol. Because chloride is heavier than the water of crystallisation it displaces, the salt carries 78.2 % creatine base against the monohydrate's 87.9 %, with chloride accounting for roughly 21.2 % of the mass. That conversion matters whenever a label or a specification is written in creatine base rather than in salt. Physically it is a white to off-white crystalline powder that melts with decomposition at 215–218 °C, is markedly hygroscopic, and gives an acidic solution in water. Solubility is the entire reason the salt exists. In the reference physicochemical study of creatine guanidinium salts (Gufford et al., Journal of Dietary Supplements, 2010), creatine hydrochloride measured roughly 38 times more water-soluble than creatine monohydrate — which itself manages only about 13 g/L at 20 °C — with the mesylate second at about 30 times. For a formulator that opens up formats the monohydrate cannot support: clear ready-to-drink beverages and shots, effervescent tablets, instant flavoured stick packs, chewables and single-scoop pre-workouts where the powder has to go into solution without grit or sediment. The trade-offs are an honest lower creatine payload per gram, an acidic solution pH, and moisture sensitivity in the dry state that has to be respected in packaging and in-process handling. The material is made by salifying synthetic creatine with hydrochloric acid; the creatine itself comes from sodium sarcosinate and cyanamide, so it is neither a fermentation product nor animal-derived, and vegan and non-animal-origin declarations are available. There is no USP, Ph. Eur. or FCC monograph for the hydrochloride, so lots are released against an in-house specification: assay 99.0 % minimum, identity by IR and HPLC, loss on drying, chloride content, elemental impurities to USP <232>/<233>, microbiological limits, and a screen for the creatinine, dicyandiamide and dihydrotriazine impurities for which EFSA set reference limits in creatine. Buyers should independently confirm freedom to operate in their destination market — oral supplementation with creatine hydrochloride is the subject of granted US patents (for example US 8,354,450). Export packing is 25 kg net in double LDPE liners with a moisture barrier inside fibre drums. Classification is HS 2925.29, India ITC-HS 29252990 — the salt follows the parent imine-function compound, not the 2922 amino-acid line.