N-Acetylcysteine is created by a chemical process out of L-Cysteine hydrochloride that is obtained by combining L-cysteine with hydrogen chloride. L-cysteine is found in food, hair and feathers.
Yes, that's a stable precursor of L-Cysteine, required if you want to powder and pill as a supplement. Once in the body, it is converted to Cysteine, then glutamine(edit: wrong one, it's glutathione), etc..
It's no different than using a Creatine powder, like creatine monohydrate. That is a stable form of Creatine. Once in the body, it is processed to Creatine phosphate, then adenosine, donating a phosphate to ABP creating ATP etc. Or something to that effect, I forget the full pathway. Good for high energy muscle use like lifting heavy and sprinting.
Lets remember that GNC and the supplement manufacturers make a shitload of money too.
NAC is precursor of cysteine, but it has additional features that were not observed with cysteine. So it can be used in all cases where cysteine is useful (as antioxidant, as antidote for negative effects of alcohol, for prevention of radiation damage, ...), but it is also used in psychiatry, for mucolytic therapy, to dissolve the van-Willebrand clotting factor, and as anti-inflammatory drug.
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