Glucosamine hcl
Karl Ivanova
Glucosamine hcl is a salt of this very important compound, condensed from glucose and ammonia. Amino sugars by themselves are often hygroscopic (absorb water vapors) and degrade fast when dissolved. To prevent that from happening, miscellaneous salts, such as glucosamine hcl are used to make the preparation stable when exposed to open air, and to allow to store them for longer periods of time.
If there is a doubt what form of this compound is better to take, please consider glucosamine hcl as a stable salt, harmless to stomach and containing no compounds able to negatively affect digesting. After all, hydrochloric acid is naturally present in stomach.
One should be very careful selecting proper form of amino sugars to take and read all the instructions before using. Since all the acid compounds with positive ions are called salts, this can mislead a person who avoid taking much "common salt", potassium chloride. Glucosamine hcl is of course potassium free and the only question of using this salt is whether it is as effective as other salts.
However, the latest researches indicate the curing effect is related to the glucosamine, not to hcl or other acid used to stabilize. Thus the only remaining factor is the percentage of the active component of the preparation, which is higher in case of glucosamine hcl when compared to sulfate. Moreover, hydrochloride is less hygroscopic and degrades much less quickly than sulfate. To make the sulfate, potassium or sodium sulfate is co-crystallized with glucosamine hcl and thus the amount of active compounds is significantly reduced (and persons sensible to the amount of potassium and/or sodium should take additional care when using sulfate.
In all the other aspects these two main forms are equal, since the actual active compound is glucosamine, not its hcl or sulfate 'add-on'.
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