Acide glutamique in food supplements

135 supplements declared in France contain Acide glutamique as a substance or active ingredient.

Uses

• Gastric medicines; infusion solutions/diagnostic aids; raw material (peptide drugs).

• MEDICATION (VET)

• Nutritional supplement. Hydrochloride as gastric acidifier.

• Calculated removal (%): 92.1

• Consumption (g per capita; approx.) in Germany (2009): 0.0611

• Use (kg; approx.) in Germany (2009): >5000

Use classification

• Food additives

• Cosmetics -> Antistatic; Hair conditioning; Humectant

A molecule found naturally in plants or organisms; in a supplement it may be extracted from them, made by fermentation or synthesised: the declaration does not say which.

Basis: one CosIngThe European Commission's database of cosmetic ingredients. CAS and natural occurrence recorded in Wikidata (LOTUS database).

Natural occurrence recorded in Wikidata (LOTUS database): 124 taxa; examples: Morchella angusticeps, Morchella crassipes, Streptomyces akiyoshiensis, Streptomyces albidoflavus, Allium sativum.

Manufacturing

• By hydrolysis of gluten (wheat, corn or other vegetable sources); by fermentation from glucose-containing raw materials; the racemic acid may be resolved into the d- and l-isomer by fractional crystallization; from 2-cyclopentenylamine; by microbial conversion of alpha-ketoglutaric acid; or by an alternative method, using Bacillus megatherium-cereus; from fumaric acid, using Bacillus pumilus; from starch.

• Hydrolysis of vegetable protein (e.g., beet sugar waste, wheat gluten), organic synthesis based on acrylonitrile. It comprises 40% of the gliadin in wheat gluten.

• Microbial fermentation medium + Corneybacterium glutamicum bacteria (fermentation/separation)

• The first industrial production process was an extraction method in which vegetable proteins were treated with hydrochloric acid to disrupt peptide bonds. L-Glutamic acid hydrochloride was then isolated from this material and purified as MSG. Initial production of MSG was limited because of the technical drawbacks of this method. Better methods did not emerge until the 1950s. One of these was direct chemical synthesis, which was used from 1962 to 1973. In this procedure, acrylonitrile was the starting material, and optical resolution of DL-glutamic acid was achieved by preferential crystallization. In 1956 a direct fermentation method to produce glutamate was introduced. The advantages of the fermentation method (eg, reduction of production costs and environmental load) were large enough to cause all glutamate manufacturers to shift to fermentation. Today, total world production of MSG by fermentation is estimated to be 2 million tons/y (2 billion kg/y). However, future production growth will likely require further innovation.

Appearance

• Orthorhombic plates from dilute alcohol

• White crystals or crystalline powder

Odour described

• Odorless

Stability

• Stable under recommended storage conditions. /L-Glutamic acid hydrochloride/

Taste described

• Acidic (glutamate-like) taste

• Umami sour taste

Other names: L-glutamic acid (English), L-Glutaminsäure (German).

Compl'Alim ingredient list (France): listed.

Canada, licensed natural health products (LNHPD): 7 products.

United States, supplement labels (DSLD; supplements need no prior approval): 987 products.