noun
kainic acid
A neuroexcitatory amino acid originally isolated from the red alga Digenea simplex (海人草). Used in neuroscience research as a selective agonist for kainate receptors.
海人酸は神経科学研究でよく使われる興奮性アミノ酸です。
Kainic acid is an excitatory amino acid often used in neuroscience research.
From 海人 (kainin, an old name for the red alga Digenea simplex) + 酸 (san, 'acid'). The alga was historically used as a vermifuge, and the compound was first isolated from it in the 1950s.