| Tryptophan 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. In tryptophan, the 'R' group is rather bulky: a methyl group attached to two joined rings; one of which is a benzene ring.
Other informationTryptophan is an essential amino acid found naturally in many foods, and has been available in health food stores as a dietary supplement. However it has been implicated in health scares, possibly due to contamination, so it is no longer available in many countries.More information from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia 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. |
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