An essential amino acid or indispensable amino acid is an amino acid that cannot be synthesized de novo by the organism (usually referring to humans), and therefore must be supplied in the diet.
Read more about Essential Amino Acid: Essentiality Vs. Conditional Essentiality in Humans, Recommended Daily Amounts, Use of Essential Amino Acids, Essential Amino Acid Deficiency, Mnemonics
Famous quotes containing the word essential:
“[A person] is a thinking intelligent being, that has reason and reflection, and can consider itself as itself, the same thinking thing in different times and places; which it does only by that consciousness which is inseparable from thinking, and, as it seems to me, essential to it: It being impossible for any one to perceive, without perceiving that he does perceive.”
—John Locke (1632–1704)