melatonin safety

[mll6 at Lehigh.EDU]

In article <Pine.3.89.9510101953.A11659-0100000 at usibr01.usi.edu>, mmcwilli at USIBR
01.USI.EDU ("Mark A. McWilliams") writes:
>
>To whom it may concern,
>
>     I was looking for someone to correspond to about questions I had
>about melatonin.   The questions I had are: How is melatonin supplements
>produced?  I've been reading various books and articles on melatonin and
>I've discovered something very shocking.  Melatonin is a by-product of
>the amino acid tryptophan, right!   The supplement tryptophan has been
>banned do to bad side effects produced by making synthetic tryptophan.
>What if they made melatonin out of synthetically produced tryptophan?
>Would that pose a health hazard?  Just wondering.
>
>
>Please send response to:mmcwilli at risc.usi.edu
>
I read a short story about the tryptophan banning in a nutrition book.
Basically, the story is that a Japanese manufacturer of tryptophan sold 'bad'
quantities of it..'bad' because they were infected with a microbiological
organism (I forget the name) and caused several deaths.  As far as I know,
tryptophan is by itself, harmless within some range (and good for sleep
quality);  Its naturally high in milk and banannas (sp.? :>).  Of course my
info is from reading the book.