taurine

About taurine

 Taurine, or 2-aminoethanesulfonic acid, is an . It is also a major of and can be found in the lower intestine and, in small amounts, in the tissues of many animals, including humans. Taurine is a derivative of the sulfur-containing () . Taurine is one of the few known naturally occurring .
Taurine is named after the Latin taurus, which means bull or ox, as it was first isolated from in 1827 by German scientists and . In the strict sense, it is not an amino acid, as it lacks a , but it is often called one, even in scientific literature. It does contain a and may be called an amino sulfonic acid. Small polypeptides have been identified which contain taurine, but to date no has been identified as specifically recognizing taurine and capable of incorporating it into a .