Theanine

Alright, its pop quiz time. (Hah, they're not just for school anymore!) Quick--and without looking it up--in 10 words or fewer, tell us what you see in the picture below. No peeking!

** Licensing info appears below

Is the suspense killing you yet? Yes, if you guessed that this is a two-dimensional representation of a three-dimensional model of a theanine molecule, then you guessed right! If so, then celebrate with your favorite tea. Even if you guessed something else, go ahead and celebrate with your favorite tea.

Here's the empirical formula for all you chemistry geeks (you know who you are): C₇H₁₄N₂O₃

Why am I devoting an entire blog entry to theanine? That's a fair question. The reason is that theanine is an amino acid with some amazing properties, as this Wikipedia article attests.

Odds are good we'll write more about theanine here at The Manly Teas, because it's a pretty important topic. Until then, if you want more information about this amazing amino acid, look at these online resources.

http://www.pdrhealth.com/drug_info/nmdrugprofiles/nutsupdrugs/lth_0296.shtml

http://www.drugs.com/npc/l-theanine.html

http://clinicaltrials.gov/ct/search?term=theanine&submit=Search

http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/druginfo/natural/patient-green_tea.html

http://www.lef.org/magazine/mag2006/jan2006_report_theanine_01.htm

http://www.itmonline.org/arts/theanine.htm

http://www.prevmedctr.org/library/lib_greentea_esko.asp

I chose these sources as representative examples of the wide variety of information about theanine that is available online. Again, we'll most likely post more here, but I hope these sites will give you an overview of this amino acid and its nutritional importance.

---

** Licensing information: This image was created by Ccroberts in ChemAxon MarvinSketch and MarvinSpace October 24, 2006 and is governed by the GNU Free Documentation License, Version 1.2 or any later version published by the Free Software Foundation; with no Invariant Sections, no Front-Cover Texts, and no Back-Cover Texts. Subject to disclaimers.