Hey guys + girls.
I read, from some members on this site and elsewhere, that Japanese manufactured Suntheanine was the best product to buy because only it contained purely the L-isomer of theanine, without any of the D-isomer as would some Chinese manufactured "L-theanine".
I haven't gone very far with researching theanine at this point because it's a new interest of mine but I have never bumped into any actual studies relevant to this issue. I figured that it was suntheanine propaganda, or that perhaps, it was outdated/ not fully accurate. IE. maybe some manufactured L-theanine was falsely advertised as such and manufactured at 50% D-Theanine.
I started buying some products from purebulk.com recently and that website sells L-Theanine in bulk, which I am also interested in purchasing. I was hesitating purchasing it because of what I had heard about the impurity of Chinese manufactured product, so I decided to contact the customer service of the site, Timothy McNulty.
Keep in mind I know nothing about how to read COA's or anything like that. I asked Timothy about his opinion on the issue. Below is our correspondence.
[in summary, purebulk has the L-isomer in bulk, and it is not a racemic mixture.].::
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From: Me
To: Timothy McNulty @ Purebulk
Hi Timothy, thank you for the information.
I have another question for you.
I'm considering buying a bulk amount of L-theanine off of your site.
However I'm aware that this product is from China and that generally they use a racemic mixture that consists of the D and L isomers of theanine.
I haven't seen any actual proof or scientific reports of this as of yet, but have heard that with the D-isomer being 50% of the product that, it could cause side effects and that its effects are largely unknown and unstudied. I've been recommended a "suntheanine" which is the pure L isomer without any D isomer in the product. I'm wondering your opinion on this or if you have any knowledge on this. Your price is way good and I really don't want to go out of my way to get this 'suntheanine' if your product is proven to be 100% of the L-isomer.
I'll let you know if I run into any information with actual scientific reports to back it up. I'm also considering comparing your product first-hand with another product by seeing if there's any comparison in effects.
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From: Timothy McNulty
To: Me
Protoject,
I can't tell you how many times I've heard the same questions about racemic L-Theanine that arise from the Suntheanine propaganda machine. While it is true that some Theanine manufactured prior to 2003 was racemic, I haven't seen any racemic since about 2004. If it does exist, you'd have to hunt long and hard to find it.
Here's how you tell if a given Theanine is L-Theanine or DL-Theanine... Take a look at the COA. Check to make sure that the specific rotation is listed in the testing results. If the results range between +7.5° and +8.5° then its L-Theanine. Racemic (DL) theanine would have a specific rotation of around 0°.
Thanks,
Timothy McNulty
PureBulk Nutrition
PO Box 303
Myrtle Point, OR 97458
Land-line: 541-572-2393
Fax: 213-226-4677
email: timothy@purebulk.com
website: http://purebulk.com
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Maybe you guys already knew that but for anyone who didn't know that about the Rotation, there ya go.
Edited by protoject, 14 November 2009 - 05:38 AM.
