L-Aspartic Acid

L-Aspartic acid is (2S)-2-aminobutanedioic acid, CAS 56-84-8, molecular formula C4H7NO4 and molecular weight 133.10. It is one of the two acidic, dicarboxylic proteinogenic amino acids, carrying a second carboxyl group on the beta carbon, and that extra acid function drives almost everything a formulator needs to know about it. The material is only slightly soluble in plain water, around 5 g/L at 25 degrees C, yet dissolves freely in dilute mineral acid and in alkali hydroxide solution, so wet-process work is normally done as the salt or under pH control rather than by trying to dissolve the free acid. It presents as white crystals or crystalline powder with a slightly acidic taste, decomposes on heating at about 270 degrees C, and is held to the USP content range of 98.5 to 101.5 percent on the dried basis with a specific rotation of +24.5 to +26.0 degrees, determined by titration against 0.1 M sodium hydroxide. Aspartic acid is dietarily non-essential in humans and is formed endogenously by transamination of oxaloacetate, which places it directly at the junction between amino acid nitrogen and the tricarboxylic acid cycle; it is also the nitrogen donor entering the urea cycle at argininosuccinate. That is a statement of established intermediary metabolism and composition, not a health benefit - Thovek makes no therapeutic or disease claim for the ingredient, and any nutrient or function wording on a finished product remains the brand owner's responsibility under destination-market rules. Commercially, the ingredient is bought for three quite different reasons: as the acid partner in mineral aspartate chelates such as magnesium, zinc, potassium and calcium aspartate, as the amino acid feedstock in aspartame manufacture, and as a free-form amino acid in sports and clinical nutrition blends, where its low free-acid solubility makes it a common choice for effervescent and granulated systems. Production is enzymatic rather than fermentative or extractive. Fumaric acid and ammonia are combined using L-aspartate ammonia-lyase, the aspartase enzyme EC 4.3.1.1, carried on immobilised microbial cells in a continuous reactor - a route first commercialised in Japan and still the industry standard because it gives high product concentration with very little by-product. Nothing of animal origin is involved and the product is not a protein hydrolysate, so it is vegan and vegetarian suitable, non-bovine, non-porcine and non-marine, and free from milk, egg, soy, fish, crustacean, gluten, peanut and tree nut. Buyers should distinguish this L-form clearly from D-aspartic acid and from the DL-racemate, which are separate articles with different specifications and different optical rotation; Thovek supplies the L-enantiomer only, and the rotation figure on each CoA is the check. Batch CoA, MSDS, allergen and origin statement, non-GMO declaration and Kosher or Halal certificates accompany every consignment.