BETAINE

betaine

(noun) a sweet tasting alkaloid that occurs in sugar beets

Source: WordNet® 3.1


Noun

betaine (countable and uncountable, plural betaines)

(uncountable, organic compound) A sweet, crystalline compound (not an alkaloid), trimethylammoniumacetate, found in sugar beet and similar plants, sometimes used to treat muscular degeneracy; the zwitterion (CH3)3N+CH2COO-

(countable, organic chemistry) Any derivative of this compound.

(countable, organic chemistry, by extension) Any similar compound, based on sulfur or phosphorus etc, having an onium ion with no hydrogen atom adjacent to the anionic atom.

Anagrams

• Beatine, antibee

Source: Wiktionary


Be"ta*ine, n. Etym: [From beta, generic name of the beet.] (Chem.)

Definition: A nitrogenous base, C5H11NO2, produced artificially, and also occurring naturally in beetroot molasses and its residues, from which it is extracted as a white crystalline substance; -- called also lycine and oxyneurine. It has a sweetish taste.

Source: Webster’s Unabridged Dictionary 1913 Edition



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Word of the Day

27 May 2025

DIRECTIONALITY

(noun) the property of being directional or maintaining a direction; “the directionality of written English is from left to right”


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