The application of betaine in livestock and poultry breeding has attracted much attention, because betaine can provide active methyl groups in animal metabolism, form methyltransferase with homocysteine, and participate in methylation reactions, so there are "Life Methylating Agent".

Choline and methionine also have the function of providing active methyl groups, but the ability of betaine to provide methyl groups is several times that of choline and 3.8 times that of methionine.

1. Research progress at home and abroad

Synthetic betaine is a new type of fine chemical that can be widely used in chemical, feed, food, printing and dyeing, daily chemicals, medicine and other fields. Betaine can be used as a leveling agent for vat dyeing, and added to daily chemical products such as shampoo, bath liquid, conditioner, etc. Betaine is used as a food additive to produce artificial meat and other foods, which is beneficial to the health of the elderly and the growth of children Development can play a good role in promoting; betaine is also a raw material in the pharmaceutical industry, which can be used to produce drugs for the treatment and prevention of liver diseases.

In foreign countries, betaine has a history of more than ten years of production and application. The United States, France, Japan, Finland and other countries have realized industrial production, and it has been widely used in aquatic products and livestock and poultry breeding in European and American countries. In the feed industry, the concept of "methyl transfer in organisms" has attracted more and more attention. It is generally believed that animals cannot synthesize methyl groups by themselves and require substances rich in methyl groups in the food to participate in the serial reactions of animal physiological functions. It has been widely used to promote animal protein and fat metabolism, regulate osmotic pressure, and stabilize vitamins. The methyl donors commonly used in aquaculture are choline chloride and methionine. Betaine is a more effective methyl donor, which can replace choline chloride and methionine. 1 kg of betaine can replace 3.5 kg of methionine, and the efficiency of betaine in providing methyl is 1.2 times that of choline chloride.

The improvement of people's living and feed level has higher requirements for food color, aroma and taste, and the application characteristics of betaine can just meet this demand. At the same time, some of its special physiological and biochemical functions are gradually reflected with the continuous deepening of research, and have been recognized by the majority of farmers.

Second, the mechanism of action

Under the action of betaine-homocysteine ​​methyltransferase, Betaine HCl supplies a methyl group to homocysteine ​​to form methionine. Dubnoff (1949) proved that this reaction is quite rapid. The formed methionine is activated to provide methyl groups for other metabolisms (such as creatine synthesis, DNA methylation, etc.), and only methionine can act as a donor for methionine in such reactions, indicating that methionine is often consumed (Pesti, 1981) .

To sum up, betaine can partially replace methionine, and the general replacement ratio can reach 3 times in theory, but it is often 2 times in actual use, that is, 1 kg of betaine (in pure crystal) can replace 2 kg of methionine (in pure product). ).