[header] How to study the chemistry of amino acids in the human body [title] Understand what amino acids are. [step] Amino acids are chemical compounds that have important biological function in the tissues of all living organisms including humans and animals. They are usually present naturally as building blocks of special type of macromolecules that are called proteins. 
This type of macromolecules is abundant in nature and is found in many food products including meat products and other food sources. There are 20 known amino acids in the body that combined comprise the structure of all proteins in the body.