It is a carboxylic acid derivative of piperidine and, as such, an amino acid, although not one encoded genetically.

[1] CRYM, a taxon-specific protein that also binds thyroid hormones, is involved in the pipecolic acid pathway.

It accumulates in pipecolic acidemia.

[4] Pipecolic acid was identified in the Murchison meteorite.

[5] It also occurs in the leaves of the genus Myroxylon, a tree from South America.