5-HTP Capsules (Griffonia simplicifolia)

5-Hydroxytryptophan is supplied as the L-enantiomer: CAS 4350-09-8, C11H12N2O3, molecular weight 220.22, IUPAC (2S)-2-amino-3-(5-hydroxy-1H-indol-3-yl)propanoic acid, PubChem CID 144, and INN oxitriptan. It crystallises as minute rods or needles from ethanol, decomposes rather than melting cleanly - 298 to 300 C for the racemate, 273 C for the S-form - and is only sparingly soluble in cold water, taking 5.5 g per 100 mL at 100 C and 2.5 g per 100 mL in 50% boiling alcohol. The L-form rotates -32.5 degrees in water at 20 C and +16.0 degrees in 4 N hydrochloric acid, against +32.2 degrees in water for the D-form, and that pair of rotations is the cheapest confirmation a buyer will ever get that the drum holds the L-form and not a racemate. Commercially the molecule comes from one place. The seed of Griffonia simplicifolia (DC.) Baill., a Fabaceae climber of West and Central Africa, carries between six and twenty per cent 5-HTP; ordinary food contains the compound only in insignificant quantities, so there is no dietary alternative and no synthetic article competing on price. Biochemically 5-HTP sits between two better-known molecules: tryptophan hydroxylase converts L-tryptophan to 5-HTP, which is the rate-limiting step in serotonin synthesis, and aromatic amino acid decarboxylase then converts 5-HTP onward. Stating that pathway is composition, not a claim, and it is as far as this page goes. The specification point that separates a serious supplier from a careless one is Peak X. Klarskov and colleagues showed in 1999 that peak X is not a single impurity but a family of contaminants sharing a molecular weight of 234 daltons and similar HPLC retention times, and that all eight commercial 5-HTP samples they examined contained three or more members of that family. Later safety work has been reassuring rather than alarming - Das and colleagues in 2004 attributed the peaks to chromatographic artefacts at infinitesimal concentrations, and a one-year high-dose rat study found no significant evidence of eosinophilia-myalgia syndrome. The honest position is that the contaminant family is real, its significance is unsettled, and it should therefore be looked for. Thovek runs the HPLC impurity profile and reports it on the batch certificate. In the finished capsule the declared value is milligrams of 5-HTP per capsule, assayed by HPLC against a reference standard, with the extract's own assay stated separately where a lower-standardised Griffonia seed extract is used in place of the isolate. On origin the material is plant-derived and vegan. Griffonia is a legume, but it is not one of the declarable allergens - it is neither peanut, soy nor lupin - and the purified isolate carries no meaningful seed protein; there is no milk, egg, fish, crustacean, gluten or nut input. HPMC shells keep the finished capsule vegan and vegetarian, bovine gelatin is available on request and then it is neither, and titanium dioxide is left out of EU-bound shells since E171 is no longer an approved food additive there. One commercial warning belongs on the buyer's file rather than in any marketing copy: 5-HTP holds an International Nonproprietary Name, oxitriptan, and is handled as a medicinal substance in a number of jurisdictions while being sold as a dietary supplement in others. Permitted status, maximum daily levels and mandatory warnings differ materially by destination, and the buyer must confirm them with their own regulator before the first shipment leaves.