Amino Acids

Amino acids are extremely important biological compounds. Amino acid molecules have an amino group attached to one of the carbon atoms in the carbon chain of a carboxylic acid.

Comparison to Amides

That may sound like the description of an amide, but they are significantly different. You now know that an amide is made from an amine and an acid chemically reacting with one another by a dehydration reaction. When they react this way, neither the amino group nor the acid group remain in the product molecule.

In amino acids the amino group and the acid group are separate and distict from one another (although very close to one another).

In this section of the lesson we will consider the structure, nomenclature and chemical reactions of amino acids. We will also look at a particular structural feature that results in optical isomerism.

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