BETAINE IN ABIMAL FEED MORE THAN A COMMODITY

摘要

Betaine, also known as trimethylglycine, is a multifunctional compound, found naturally in plants and in animals, and also available in different forms as an additive for animal feed. The metabolic function of betaine as a methyldonor is known by mostnutritionists. Betaine is, just like choline and methionine, involved in the methyl group metabolism in the liver and donates its labile methyl group for the synthesis of several metabolically important compounds such as carnitine, creatine and hormones (See Figure 1).