What is the difference between theanine and L-theanine in green tea?
Enter basic biochemistry 101… What is contained in green tea is naturally occurring theanine, no “L-“, just theanine the way nature intended it to be. The “L-” which you commonly find in supplements refers to “levorotary” which refers to a compound’s rotation plane of polarized light. Synthetic compounds are designated with “L-” due to a chemical extraction process while naturally derived compounds are designated without a prefix or in some cases spelled out with a “d-” which stands for dexorotary. There is debate over the health benefits and effectiveness between the L-form and D-form of compounds but as a general rule; L-forms are synthetic and D-forms are natural.
