[Sen__]

Alright, this is probably an ignorant question, and I have an extremely limited knowledge of chemistry, so I'm not even sure if I'm in the correct forum. Please forgive me if I'm not.

The reason I am asking this question is because I'm interested in taking this medicine, and apparently the only brand of 'pure' L-Theanine is called 'Suntheanine', which is a patented 'L-isomer-theanine'. The thing is, that I don't know what that means, and I'm very weary of new synthetic drugs as opposed to natural ones (like L-theanine) which have been consumed for hundreds (or thousands?) of years. I tried searching for info on the internet, but I couldn't really figure out what to look up, so I figured that the best thing to do would be to directly ask.

Is there even a difference between these chemicals, or is L-isomer-theanine simply just the full name for L-Theanine? And if there is a difference, would the isomer version maybe just convert into the regular version while in my body? If not, would the 2 be likely to have at least slightly different effects on my brain?

Please excuse my ignorance and I'm sorry if this is a stupid question.

Thanks in advance,
Sen

[pfnm]

I also take L-theanine as a supplement.

Theanine is a chiral molecule.

It exists as two isomers.

L-theanine refers to the L isomer. There's no difference in saying that you have L-theanine or L-isomer-theanine.

As for Suntheanine vs. all the other L-theanine supplements, I personally have not noticed any difference in former brand, vs many other brands.

According to this FDA document, http://www.accessdata.fda.gov/scripts/fcn/gras_notices/615880A.pdf
only a very small amount (between 1 and 2 percent) of the theanine in green tea is D-Theanine (the other enantiomer).

I don't know why people regard Suntheanine as being higher quality than other brands, I believe this is marketing hype - if you have two products, one called 'Suntheanine' containing 100mg of L-theanine, and one called 'Moontheanine' containing 100mg of L-theanine, neither mixed with anything else, both in the same gelcaps etc, they'll do the same thing.

But whether every brand actually contains L-theanine in the advertised amount or not, is a different matter.

To be clear:
Assuming the company is honest -

There's no difference in saying that you have L-theanine or L-isomer-theanine. It is precisely the same compound, and the same that exists in green-tea.

[Sen__]

Thanks, I figured it was the same, just wanted to make sure.

From what I have read, the other companies are lying. I think this is probably true because I keep seeing "L-theanine (Suntheanine brand)" listed as the active ingredient on various L-Theanine products. I guess they have a patent on pure L-Theanine (which I think is wrong), so I guess it would be illegal for other companies to sell L-theanine without them receiving money/credit.

However I think it's somehow to illegal for companies to sell impure L-theanine, as I reamember reading something along the lines of herbal supplements and whatnot not requiring government regulation.

I'd have to look into it though.

Well anyway, thank you very much for answering my question.
I really appreciate it.

[pfnm]

Suntheanine is a registered trademark of Taiyo International.

I imagine they would have grounds to sue, if other companies were flogging off products called Suntheanine, without having purchased it from Taiyo. But I don't know much about the law.

I presume Taiyo International commercially supplies all those supplement companies like "NOW Foods', etc, with Suntheanine.

There's a study that you might find, that someone from Iowa University did, on a series of L-Theanine products. Apparently (I am quoting from memory) the study showed that the Suntheanine brand was primarily L-Theanine, whereas other brands claiming to be L-Theanine contained significant proportions of D-Theanine (the enantiomer to L-Theanine)...the biological activity of D-Theanine may be less than that of L-Theanine (I don't know what biological properties D-Theanine shows).

Anyway, as I said, there's lots of hype and not much fact in the supplement industry. For example the supplement 'phenibut' has been sold both as the (R) (which happens to be biologically stronger) enantiomer, and as a mix of the (S) and (R) enantiomers (and that product then is weaker).

Both were sold as phenibut - and still are. Whether you buy the (R) product or the mixture is a matter of luck.

The (R) is levorotatory, so you can test the optical purity of your mixture by polarimeter, and confirm this (by comparing different brands). I'm sure the same sort of misinformation abounds throughout the industry.