Posted by Larry Hoover on September 8, 2008, at 17:32:38
In reply to Re: Glycine Antipsychotic » Larry Hoover, posted by Zyprexa on September 8, 2008, at 16:58:54
> What does the "L" mean? Is L-Glycine the same as Glycine? Or does L mean Natural?/Organic?
The L stands for levo (left), whereas D stands for dextro (right). They describe the twisting of light by crystals of the pure substance. I know that doesn't mean much to anyone but a chemist.....
There is no L-glycine. It's all just glycine. And it doesn't twist light passing through its crystals.
Some molecules have structures that differ in "handedness", like matching right and left gloves. One example from among the amino acids is phenylalanine. You can buy DLPA (D-,L-phenylalanine) which is a mixture of the two structures. It's all phenylalanine, but half is left-twisting, and half is right-twisting. You can tell it's man-made, because it is such a mixture.
In nature, virtually without exception, only the L-twisting amino acids exist, because the twisting matters to protein structure. So, natural source phenylalanine would be pure L-phenylalanine. However, the converse is not necessarily true; pure L-phenylalanine can be man-made.
Lar
poster:Larry Hoover
thread:850659
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20080903/msgs/851067.html