| Phenylalanine is an aromatic amino acid.
Like all amino acids, it has an amino group (-NH2) - blue with 2 white balls - at one end, and a carboxylic acid group (-COOH) - grey, connected to red, and red and white - at the other end. Between these is the a- (alpha) carbon to which the 'R' group is attached. Its 'R' group is rather bulky: a methyl group with a benzene ring attached.
Other informationPhenylalanine is one of the body's natural biological chemicals. But people who suffer from the inherited condition phenylketonuria do not process it properly so that it accumulates in their body and it can have toxic effects.This is the reason for warnings on low calorie drinks which contain the artificial sweetener aspartame. You can move this molecule in 3 dimensions by holding down the left button and dragging using the mouse. If you have a central mouse wheel you can usually zoom the image in/out. Right clicking gives a variety of display options. Simply leaving the mouse pointer over one of the atoms will give information about it; the atom symbol, and some other less useful numerical information. |
||||||||||