Glutamic Acid Video #1
Observe the formation of beautiful spherulites during crystallization of glumatic acid from the melt. The digital video was recorded utilizing time-lapse cinemicrography under polarized illumination at a magnification of 50x with a playing time of 10.4 seconds. Choose a playback format that matches your connection speed:
First isolated in 1865, glutamic acid is an amino acid that functions as an important metabolic intermediate. In animals, glutamic acid is a nonessential amino acid. It can be synthesized from oxoglutaric acid, formed in the metabolism of carbohydrates, so does not require direct dietary sources. It is widely distributed in plants and some plant proteins yield as much as 45% of their weight as glutamic acid.
Much of this content probably results from the presence of a related substance, glutamine, first isolated in 1932 from wheat proteins. Glutamine is the monoamide of glutamic acid, and an abundant constituent of proteins. When a protein is hydrolyzed, glutamine is converted to glutamic acid.