Caffeine, taurine, carnitine, and glucuronolactone are traditional energy drink ingredients. But what is this glucuronolactone exactly? For the Book Excerpt of the Week from the Energy Drink Guide, we look at what this weird, chemical-sounding ingredient is, and what it has to do with glucose.
Although glucuronolactone sounds like a weird chemical, it’s a naturally occurring compound that people have been consuming on a daily basis well before energy drinks came along.
Glucuronolactone Fun Facts
Glucuronolactone is an alter ego of glucuronic acid, which is glucose that’s been oxidized or modified to hold an extra oxygen atom.
It’s not uncommon for simple sugars like glucose to go through small transformations like redox reactions. And it’s these kinds of reactions that transform glucose to glucuronic acid.
In the body, glucuronic acid is in equilibrium with glucuronolactone, meaning the molecule goes back and forth between being one or the other.
Now that we know what glucuronolactone is we can talk about what glucuronolactone does.
Stay tuned for next week’s book excerpt as we continue our page-by-page exploration through the Energy Drink Guide (now on Audible!!!).
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