Amino Acid Formula
Amino acids occur in living tissues principally in the bonded form. Most of the bonded amino acids are peptides, in which the amino group of one amino acid is linked to the carboxyl group of another.
What Is Amino Acid?
Amino acid is an organic compound that consists of carbon, hydrogen, oxygen, and Nitrogen. Another element is also present in the side chain of some amino acids. Amino acid is the monomer unit of protein. Amino acid is used as an additive to animal feed and used in chiral pool synthesis, synthesis of cosmetics, and drugs. An amino acid involves the carboxyl acid group as well as amine that is attached to the alpha carbon atom. Its molecular weight is 110 Dalton.
Chemical Formula of Methane
Amine is the basic group that is represented by -NH2 and a carboxyl group is an acidic group that is represented by -COOH. In the molecule of amino acid, there is one central carbon atom that is attached to a basic amino group and acidic carboxyl group, the other two bonds are attached to the hydrogen and R group. R group represents the side chain that is specific or unique to each amino acid. The chemical formula of amino acid is written as R-CH (NH2)-COOH.
Types of Amino Acids
On the basis of the number of the acidic carboxyl group and basic amino group present in amino acid, there are mainly three types of amino acid: An acidic amino acid, basic amino acid, and neutral amino acid.
Acidic amino acid is that amino acid that contains one amino group and two carboxyl groups. A few examples of acidic amino acids are aspartic acid and glutamic acid.
Basic amino acid is that amino acid that contains two amino groups and one carboxyl group. A few examples of basic amino acids are arginine and lysine.
Neutral amino acid is that amino acid that contains one carboxyl group and one amino group. A few examples of neutral amino acids are valine, glycine, alanine, etc.