Essential Amino Acids Essay Sample

1. Essential and Non-essential Amino acids

Amino acids are organic compounds which contain both an amino group and a carboxyl group and may be divided into two groups establishing on whether they are produced internally by the human organic structure or non: indispensable and non-essential amino acids ( hyperphysics. phy-astr. gsu. edu. 2012 ) .

An indispensable amino acid ( indispensable amino acid ) is an amino acid which an being needs to consume because it is necessary for nutrition and can non be synthesized in the organic structure. Since the organic structure is incapable of bring forthing them. they should be provided by agencies of nutrient and amino acid addendums ( World Wide Web. about. com. 2012 ) .

There are eight indispensable amino acids listed with their corresponding symbols. abbreviation. tracts etc. :

|Essential Amino Acids | ( Body can non do these aminic acids. they must come from nutrient or amino acid supplements. )

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Non-essential amino acids are those that can be synthesized by the organic structure and therefore it is non necessary for the organic structure to achieve them from an outside beginning like dietetic and aminic acid addendums ( World Wide Web. fitday. com. 2012 ) . There are 10 non-essential amino acids listed with their corresponding symbols. abbreviation. tracts etc. :

Non-Essential Amino Acids ( The organic structure can do these aminic acids from the above indispensable amino acids. )

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|Other Amino Acid Factors

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2. Which is stronger. ?-carboxyl glycine with pKa = 2. 4 or ?-amino glycine with pKa = 9. 8?

pKa is the negative base-10 logarithm of the acerb dissociation invariable of a solution or pKa = -log10Ka. The lower the pKa value and therefore the higher the Ka value. the stronger the acid is ( www. about. com. 2012 ) .

From the pKa values. the ?-carboxyl part of the amino acerb glycine is the stronger acerb since its pKa value is lower than that of the ?-amino part of glycine. Solving for the Ka values.

Ka = 10 –pKa = 10 -2. 4 = 3. 9811 ten 10 -3

Ka = 10 –pKa = 10 -9. 8 = 1. 5849 ten 10 -10

Ka for ?-carboxyl part is higher than that of the ?-amino part. another cogent evidence that the former is the stronger acid.