Glutamine

[combolic]

Are L-Glutamin the same as Glutamine (without the L)?

[jeffylyte]

The L in L-Glutamine stands for Levorotary. This is a description of the the way the molecule polarizes light. all (well nearly) organic molecules originating from life turn out to be L (as opposed to D its opposite).

the answer is they are the same, cause its understood that if you buy glutamine for consumption then only the L- form is active and therefore that is what they sell you.

however, there is a D-glutamine (the mirror opposite of L-glutamine), but unless you are buying from a chemical supplier like Aldrich or Sigma, you won't be able to get any.

[Billy Boy]

Yep its the same

[combolic]

Thanx

[saboudian]

Originally posted by jeffylyte
The L in L-Glutamine stands for Levorotary. This is a description of the the way the molecule polarizes light. all (well nearly) organic molecules originating from life turn out to be L (as opposed to D its opposite).

the answer is they are the same, cause its understood that if you buy glutamine for consumption then only the L- form is active and therefore that is what they sell you.

however, there is a D-glutamine (the mirror opposite of L-glutamine), but unless you are buying from a chemical supplier like Aldrich or Sigma, you won't be able to get any.

Nice to know that someone else around here knows some chem. I'll just add a lil bit to this. The difference between any D and L molecule has to do with the structure, suprisingly they have the exact same composition but there is a difference in structure. This may seem like a subtle difference but the D form may in fact act completely different from the L form and does sometimes. There was a drug in the 60's (can't remember the name) that was used as an anastetic during birth. Many babies (if not all) turned out to be vegetables as a result. They could not figure this out for a long time and this went on for a while, and they finally realized that even though the D form was a great anastetic, the L form had properties that formed complications with the baby. You see when humans try to synthesize something, they get a 50/50 mixture of both and in this case the properties of the L and D form were drastically different. When nature forms some compound it will form one or the other, for example, your body will only take in and use L proteins and D sugars and will just flush any other forms of it out. To this day i don't beleive there are any methods that will produce only one or the other so i beleive that they somehow separate the two, we still do not know how nature is able to manufacture only one form and not the other.