Posts Tagged ‘Non- essential amino acids’

Amazing power of amino acids cont…

There are 23 amino acids. Eight of them are strictly dietary essentials and cannot be synthesized at all by the body. These are isoleucine, leucine, lysine, methionine, phenylalanine, threonine, tryptophan, and valine. In addition to these strictly essential amino acids, two other amino acids, namely, arginine and histidine, are essential for infants and young persons, as the capacity for their synthesis in the body is not adequate to meet the needs for growth.

In addition to the ten essential amino acids, there are thirteen non-essential amino acids. They are proline, carnitine, tyrosine, glutamic acid and glutamine, cysteine and cystine, glycine, alanine, b-alanine, aspartic acid, taurine, ornithine, citrulline, and gama-aminobutyric acid (GAMA). Under special conditions, the demand for some of the non-essential amino acids may be greater than the synthetic capacity, and therefore, they too can become dietary essentials.

About 75% of the amino acids entering the bloodstream through the liver from the gastro-intestinal tract after a meal, are metabolized in the liver, and only about 25% enter the general circulation. Out of the intake of amino acids in excess of immediate requirements, upto 50% are catabolized for energy-yielding metabolism, and non-essential amino acids that have not been ingested in adequate amounts are synthesized for transport to other tissues. The nitrogen from this amino acid catabolism is not excreted immediately, but a considerable amount of urea is recirculated through the gastro-intestinal tract and reabsorbed as ammonia.

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Amazing Power of Amino acids

An amino acid can be defined as any of a large group of organic compounds which represent the end products of protein breakdown. All proteins are made up of amino acids. Life without protein is not possible.
Growth, development, and function depend upon protein, which, in turn, depends upon the correct availability of amino acids. When we take protein it must be first broken down into amino acids before it can be absorbed by the body. This takes place in the small bowel. From there, the fragments of the protein are carried to the liver by the bloodstream, where they are stored for future use. When needed by the body, these fragments are finally recombined into the type of protein needed by each particular kind of cell.
All amino acids comprise a carbon atom, an amino group, and a carboxyl group. Plants synthesize amino acids from these sources : the soil which supplies the necessary nitrogen and sulphur, water which provides oxygen and hydrogen, and atmospheric carbon dioxide which supplies carbon and oxygen. With the help of synthesizing bacteria and fungi, plants unite these elements into amino acids. Animals cannot synthesize amino acids from these basic elements but derive them from the indigestion of plants. Thus the primary source of all the proteins, including meat and fish, is the vegetable kingdom.
The mere division of nutrients into groups such as vitamins, minerals, and amino acids does not mean that they are effective individually. An interrelationship exists among the three nutrients, and they may lose their efficiency if any one of the nutrients is not present in an optimum quantity. All proteins are not present in its optimum quantity. All proteins are not nutritionally equivalent. This difference in nutritional value is based on the amino acid composition of different proteins. This led to the concept of Essential Amino acids (EAA) and Non-Essential amino acids (NEAA).