78 



Glutathione is a tripeptide made up of cysteine, glutamic acid and gly- 

 cine, it exists in two forms, reduced (or thiol form) and oxidized (disul- 

 phide form), or dehydrogenated glutathione. 



HoC— S S CH2 



NH— OC— CH 



HC— CO— NH 



CH2 



I 

 COOH 



HN 

 CO 



H^C 



! 



i 



H2C 



NH 



CO 



I 

 CH2 



CH2 



HC— NH2 NH2— CH 

 COOH COOH 



Oxidized form of glutathione 



I 

 CH2 



I 



COOH 



Carnosine or j6-alanyl-L-histidine is another natural peptide, present in 

 vertebrate muscle accompanied by its methyl derivative, anserine. 



