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Histidine

The amino acid L-histidine is one of the 10 essential amino acids which cannot be synthesized by the human body and therefore must be obtained by the diet. L-histidine is a necessary amino acid for neurotransmitter formation. Additionally, L-histidine regulates blood sugar levels and affects allergic response. In addition to histidine's routine metabolic role as a protein building block, histidine is an effective scavenger of toxic oxygen species and therefore is useful in the protection of cells and tissues from a variety of inflammatory disease processes. The antioxidant effect of histidine has been attributed to its ability to scavenge highly reactive oxygen species, particularly singlet oxygen and hydroxyl radical produced by the degradation of hydrogen peroxide and molecular oxygen. Taurine and histidine are both amino acids and divalent cation chelators that were found to have the ability to remove calcium from the skin of humans. More particularly, histidine was found to chelate significant amounts of calcium from human skin at concentrations that were non-irritating.

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