Raw material and nutrient lexicon
Tryptophan
Tryptophan is an important building block for body protein and is found in practically all tissues of the animal organism. It is particularly important in a wide variety of metabolic processes. Tryptophan is a precursor of NAD, which is important for energy metabolism, and of the tissue hormones serotonin and tryptamine. As a building block of feed protein, tryptophan must be supplied to the animal in the diet, as it cannot be synthesised in the body as an essential amino acid. Protein-rich by-products of oil extraction for human nutrition such as soybean meal, sunflower meal or rapeseed meal are rich in tryptophan. Cereals, on the other hand, contain only little tryptophan. Especially in feeds for young growing piglets, pure tryptophan in the L-form (D-form biologically not utilisable by the animal) is often used to ensure the animals' needs are met comprehensively. The pure L-tryptophan is produced and obtained fermentatively by microorganisms
