know sth about Tryptophan

For some time, tryptophan has been available in health food stores as a dietary supplement. Many people found tryptophan to be a safe and reasonably effective sleep aid, probably due to its ability to increase brain levels of serotonin and/or melatonin.

Then what is tryptophan and where can we find it ? As we know Tryptophan is one of the 20 standard amino acids, as well as an essential amino acid in the human diet. Only the L-stereoisomer of tryptophan is used in structural or enzyme proteins, but the D-stereoisomer is occasionally found in naturally produced peptides. The distinguishing structural characteristic of tryptophan is that it contains an indole functional group.

And Tryptophan is a routine constituent of most protein-based foods or dietary proteins. It is particularly plentiful in chocolate, oats, dried dates, milk, yogurt, cottage cheese, red meat, eggs, fish, poultry, sesame, chickpeas, sunflower seeds, pumpkin seeds, spirulina, and peanuts. Despite popular belief to the contrary, the level found in turkey is at a level typical of poultry in general. And as one of Tryptophan Derivatives, DL-Tryptophancasein protein can be alkaline hydrolysis, refining derived from the β - or indole - formaldehyde and hippuric acid synthesis.