Table 1.

Concentrations of nutrients in RPMI 1640 and human plasma. Human plasma values represent measured means from indicated studies. Where available, data is from fasting donors without vitamin supplementation. Nutrients listed as “essential” for P. falciparum cultivation are based on significant growth impairment upon isolated removal from RPMI 1640 [7, 34]. *Hypoxanthine is not present in RPMI 1640 but is typically added for parasite culture.

Nutrient	Concentration in RPMI 1640, mM	Concentration in human plasma, mM	Ref. for human plasma	Requirement for P. falciparum culture
L-Arginine	1.15	0.082	[35]
L-Asparagine	0.378	0.048	[35]
L-Aspartic acid	0.15	0.013	[36]
L-Cysteine	0.416	0.114	[35]	Essential
L-Glutamic acid	0.136	0.053	[35]	Essential
L-Glutamine	2.05	0.611	[35]	Essential
Glycine	0.133	0.268	[35]
L-Histidine	0.097	0.086	[35]
Hydroxy-L-proline	0.153	0.018	[35]
L-Isoleucine	0.381	0.074	[35]	Essential
L-Leucine	0.381	0.141	[35]
L-Lysine	0.219	0.191	[35]
L-Methionine	0.101	0.03	[35]	Essential
L-Phenylalanine	0.091	0.061	[35]
L-Proline	0.174	0.204	[35]	Essential
L-Serine	0.285	0.121	[35]
L-Threonine	0.168	0.15	[35]
L-Tryptophan	0.024	0.55	[35]
L-Tyrosine	0.111	0.067	[35]	Essential
L-Valine	0.171	0.23	[35]
D-Biotin	0.00082	3.91E − 7	[37]
Choline Chloride	0.0215	0.013	[38]
Folic Acid	0.00227	2.5E − 7	[39]
Myoinositol	0.194	0.024	[40]
Niacinamide	0.0082	3.0E − 4	[41]
p-Amino Benzoic Acid	0.0073	N/D
D-Pantothenic Acid	0.000524	2.3E − 4	[42]	Essential
Pyridoxine	0.0049	1.14E − 4	[43]
Riboflavin	0.00053	1.05E − 5	[44]
Thiamine	0.003	1.16E − 5	[45]
Vitamin B-12	3.7E − 06	3.1E − 7	[46]
D-Glucose	11.1	5.5		Essential
Hypoxanthine*	0.03	4.0E − 4	[47]	Essential