The availability of histidine derivatives for growth

Abstract

A diet providing 1.3-1.4 g. of a mixture of 18 amino-acids gave similar growth rate of young rats to that containing 8% casein. Omission of histidine led to a loss of wt. [alpha]-Diamino-[gamma]-ketovaleric acid and 2-thiolhistidine could not replace histidine. Addition of [alpha]-N-acetylhistidine to a deficient diet produced normal growth, while N-benzoyl-histidine was inactive.