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Histidine
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A metabolic pathway diagram for Escherichia coli showing how various nutrients-including sugars, fats, glycerol, and amino acids-are broken down into intermediates like pyruvate and acetyl-CoA, leading to the production of energy and other metabolites such as lactate, glutamate, and succinate. Arrows indicate the flow of metabolites between compounds, with key nutrient sources and products highlighted in colored boxes.
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Histidine

amino acid
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Encyclopaedia Britannica's editors oversee subject areas in which they have extensive knowledge, whether from years of experience gained by working on that content or via study for an advanced degree....
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Histidine, an amino acid obtainable by hydrolysis of many proteins. A particularly rich source, hemoglobin (the oxygen-carrying pigment of red blood cells) yields about 8.5 percent by weight of histidine. First isolated in 1896 from various proteins, histidine is one of several so-called essential amino acids for human beings; they cannot synthesize it and require dietary sources. In microorganisms histidine is synthesized from the sugar ribose and the nucleotide adenosine triphosphate. The chemical structure of histidine ishistidine, chemical compound

Histamine, a compound involved in the physiological processes associated with allergic reactions, is formed in the human body by decarboxylation of histidine.

This article was most recently revised and updated by Erik Gregersen.