Nomenclature of Amino Acids

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All amino acids have trivial names. IUPAC names which even if not cumbersome are not used. For e.g., H₂N CH₂COOH is better known as glycine rather then a-amino acetic acid or 2-amino ethanoic acid.

These trivial names usually reflect the property of that compound or its source. Example: Glycine is so named since it has sweet taste (in Greek glykos means sweet) and tyrosine was first obtained from cheese (in Greek, tyros means cheese).