After almost 15 years tryptophan is back on the market. Tryptophan was one of the most popular and safest over-the-counter supplements - used by millions of Americans for mood and sleep. Unfortunately, a contaminated batch of low-grade tryptophan caused a recall of all tryptophan-containing products in the United States . The CDC (Centers for Disease Control) found that the problem was limited to a single contaminated batch. The FDA has instituted tighter quality control to assure the purity of tryptophan. Now, to the relief of millions of consumers, all FDA purity and quality requirements have been met and TRYPTOPHAN IS BACK.

THE NEW MEDICAL GRADE TRYPTOPHAN

The tryptophan available through this site is manufactured to an exceptionally high standard. The purity of this tryptophan meets the requirements for pharmaceutical medication ( USP which means U.S. Pharmaceutical grade ). In fact, this product exceeds the USP standards for purity by meeting the CP 2000 standards - the standard of purity required for intravenous medication, which is an even higher level of quality than that required for oral prescription drugs.

SAFETY AND QUALITY CONTROL

The FDA has gone to considerable lengths to assure the quality of the tryptophan currently imported. Tryptophan is monitored under an import alert, which means that there are additional quality-control requirements for this material. To avoid adulteration, the importer is required to sell only encapsulated products that have been bottled. Currently only a few American vendors have gone through the rigorous evaluations required to import tryptophan. Vendors have signed an agreement not to re-label it, not to sell it in powdered form and not to mix it in other formulas in order to assure the purity of this product.

Only a few sources in the United States currently have met FDA purity requirements in order to market tryptophan. Only these few have taken the time to register with the FDA and submit their product to extensive testing. Other than these few vendors, all the tryptophan available on the Internet is either:

. 5 HPT, which is less effective or

. Veterinary grade, not intended for human consumption.

We strongly recommend buying only tryptophan which is absolutely USP grade or higher. Otherwise, consumers run the risk of using lower-quality products of unknown purity. You will also want the assurance of USP grade for any 5-HTP products or any other form of tryptophan. This site is one of the few sources of pharmaceutical-grade tryptophan currently available through the Internet. The FDA has tested and retested each batch of these products to assure their absolute purity. The most recent tests found a level of purity that exceeds the very highest standards.

BACKGROUND

Some readers will be familiar with the tryptophan story, others will not. Briefly, in 1987 a batch of lower grade tryptophan was permitted into this country. The FDA had relaxed their standards and allowed lower-quality (food-grade) amino acids into the U.S. market that were in no way as pure as the US Pharmaceutical grade normally available.

Since these food-grade products were very inexpensive, they were sold widely and tons of this lesser-quality tryptophan quickly entered the market. Unfortunately, a single batch of this product was contaminated. There were 37 deaths and more than 1,500 serious illnesses. Investigations traced all the problems were to one large batch of substandard food-grade tryptophan. In 1989, the FDA issued an involuntary product recall on all tryptophan and tryptophan totally disappeared from the U.S. market.

The CDC's investigation clearly showed that there was no inherent problem with tryptophan. All the problems were linked to the contaminants in this particular batch of food-grade material. Since that time, more than 20 research studies have been conducted on tryptophan, involving more than 500 patients, finding no evidence of toxicity or contamination. These were randomized, controlled clinical trials - the gold standard of research evaluation.

We are please to be able to provide tryptophan of such exceptional quality to our customers. The research is unequivocal about the importance of tryptophan to moods, sleep, performance and well being. Stress is at epidemic levels and the healing benefits of tryptophan have never been more needed.