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-Arke- t1_j9b5al5 wrote

Reply to comment by stronkreddituser in Why are we not acidic? by stronkreddituser

For starters, the previous answer can give you a general idea of how things are. That said, amino acid doesn't mean acid (or basic either).

An amino acid is a chain wich has a NH2 (basic) on one extreme and COOH (acid) on the other. So the actual PH of every aminoacid will deppend on the rest of the molecule.

But still, the actual answer would have more to do with what you've been told than it has to do with this, which is more of an anecdotic piece of knowledge.

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aphilsphan t1_j9b8qyi wrote

To add a bit, an amino acid can and will protonate itself. So the COOH (carboxylic acid) group “loses” its hydrogen as an ion (called a proton by chemists because that’s what it is). This results in the pronation of the amine (NH2) group. So you’ve got COO- on one end and NH3+ on the other. This is the “zwitterion” form.

Lots of chemistry is learning the vocabulary because the vocabulary makes it easier to communicate quickly.

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