[6][3] As a salt, potassium asparaginate is formed when the potassium ion (K+) replaces the hydrogen ion (H+) in the carboxyl group of L-asparagine, an amino acid; in this process, the carboxyl group (–COOH) in L-asparagine loses hydrogen which is replaced by potassium.

[1] Potassium asparaginate, along with magnesium asparaginate, is marketed in Russia and Eastern European countries to treat or prevent potassium deficiency (hypokalemia) and magnesium deficiency (hyponatremia).

[11] In the United States, potassium asparaginate is not specifically approved by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for treating any medical condition;[11] to treat hypokalemia, potassium is instead administered as other salts, namely, gluconate, citrate, chloride or bicarbonate.

Such substances are useful in applications such as signal transmission, data storage, or optical switching.

[1][12] High optical nonlinearity refers to the property of materials to respond to light (e.g., a laser) in a nonlinear manner, meaning that the property doesn't scale linearly with the intensity of the light applied.