Chemistry

Aspartic Acid

Aspartic Acid

Aspartic acid (symbol Asp or D; aspartate is the ionic form) is a non-essential amino acid in humans; aspartic acid has a negative overall charge and plays a significant role in the synthesis of certain amino acids and in the cycles of citric acid and urea. Its α-amino group is within the protonated –NH+3 form under physiological conditions, while its α-carboxylic acid group is deprotonated −COO under physiological conditions. It’s slightly soluble in water.

Asparagine, arginine, lysine, methionine, isoleucine, and aspartic acid synthesize certain nucleotides. Aspartate sidechains in proteins are often bonded with hydrogen to form asx turns or asx motifs, which also occur at the alpha-helices N-termini. Aspartic acid functions as a neurotransmitter, too.

Aspartic acid was first isolated in 1868 from legumin in plant seeds, an amino acid is one in all several so-called nonessential amino acids for mammals; i.e., they will synthesize it from oxalacetic acid (formed within the metabolism of carbohydrates) and don’t require dietary sources. Aspartic acid is an amino acid used to promote smoothness in the skin. Typically present in dry skin products.

Aspartic acid, like glutamic acid, is known as an acidic amino acid, with a pKa of 3.9 but this is highly dependent on the local environment of a peptide, and maybe as high as 14. L-aspartic acid is the L-enantiomer of aspartic acid. It has a task as an escherichia metabolite, a mouse metabolite, and a neurotransmitter. It’s an aspartate family organic compound, a proteinogenic aminoalkanoic acid, an aminoalkanoic acid, and an L-alpha-amino acid. It is a conjugate acid of a L-aspartate(1-). It is a D-aspartic acid enantiomer.

Aspartic acid is a non-essential amino acid, which occurs naturally in poultry, plants, sugar cane, beets, and molasses. Most generally a synthetic form is used for industrial applications. In addition, amino acid acts as a hydrogen acceptor in an exceedingly chain of ATP synthase. Dietary L-aspartic acid has been shown to act as an inhibitor of Beta-glucuronidase, which serves to control enterohepatic circulation of bilirubin and bile acids.

There are claims that L-aspartate is a special form of mineral transporter for cations into cells, such as magnesium. There are also claims that L-aspartate has ergogenic effects, that both prolonged exercise and short intensive exercise enhance performance. It is hypothesized that L-aspartate, particularly aspartate salt from potassium magnesium, spares muscle glycogen stores and/or promotes a faster rate of glycogen resynthesis during exercise.

 

Information Sources:

  1. chemicalbook.com
  2. pubchem.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov
  3. wikipedia