Frequently asked questions

amino101 is an independent reference for people researching peptides. It has a database of compounds with plain-language explanations, a reconstitution calculator, a glossary, and a list of vendors we have actually vetted. It is not a store and does not sell anything.

No. Everything here is educational. Dose ranges are what shows up in published research and community protocols, not a recommendation for you. Talk to a clinician who knows your history before using anything.

Bacteriostatic water is sterile water with 0.9% benzyl alcohol added, which stops bacteria from growing in a vial you will puncture multiple times over a few weeks. Plain sterile water is fine for a single-use vial but has no preservative, so a multi-dose vial mixed with it should be used within a day or two.

It does not change the total amount of peptide in the vial, only the concentration. More water means a larger, easier to measure volume per dose. Less water means smaller injections. Pick a volume that puts your typical dose somewhere between 5 and 50 units on an insulin syringe so it is easy to read. The calculator on every peptide page does this for you.

Insulin syringes are marked in units, where 100 units equals 1 mL on a U-100 syringe. A unit is a volume, not an amount of peptide. How many mcg are in one unit depends entirely on how much water you added. This is the number one source of dosing mistakes, which is why our calculator always shows both.

Aim the stream at the glass wall of the vial and let it run down slowly. Then swirl gently or let it sit. Do not shake. Most peptides dissolve within a minute or two. A few larger molecules can take longer and may look faintly cloudy, which is normal.

In the fridge at 2 to 8 C, most reconstituted peptides are considered good for about 4 weeks. Some hold up longer, like BPC-157 and TB-500, and some degrade faster, like IGF-1 variants. Unopened lyophilized vials last much longer in the freezer or fridge.

Concentration equals the peptide in the vial divided by the water you added. Dose volume equals your target dose divided by that concentration. Multiply by 100 to get insulin syringe units. Example: 5 mg in 2 mL is 2.5 mg per mL, so a 250 mcg dose is 0.1 mL, which is 10 units.

No. Start low, especially with anything that affects appetite, blood pressure, or nausea. GLP-1 compounds in particular have a formal titration schedule for a reason. You can always go up.

Subcutaneous, into belly or thigh fat, is the default for nearly all peptides. It is easier, less painful, and absorbs steadily. Intramuscular is used for a few compounds like IGF-1 variants and NAD+ and for people who want faster uptake. Rotate sites either way.

Third-party testing with a public certificate of analysis for each lot, from a named lab you can look up. A real company address and a way to reach a human. A track record you can find in communities the vendor does not run. Products that match the label. Our vendor page explains what we check and shows the results.

It is the label under which these compounds are sold, because most of them are not approved drugs. It puts the responsibility for use on the buyer. It says nothing about quality, which is why testing matters.

Raw material sourcing, testing costs, overhead, and margin. A very cheap product is not automatically fake and an expensive one is not automatically good, but unusually cheap plus no public testing is a bad sign.

Some are approved drugs with years of safety data, like semaglutide and tesamorelin. Many others have only animal studies or small human pilots. Safety varies compound by compound, and each page here says where the evidence actually stands. Buying from a tested source removes one big risk, since contamination and mislabeled vials are a bigger practical danger than the peptide itself for most compounds.

Unopened lyophilized vials: fridge or freezer, out of light. Reconstituted vials: fridge, never freezer, used within about a month. Do not leave vials in a hot car or on a sunny counter. Heat and light degrade peptides faster than anything else.

Confusing units with mcg, adding water without writing down how much, shaking the vial, reusing needles, starting at the maximum dose, and buying from whoever has the lowest price on a marketplace with no testing.