We observe intense and narrow vibrational Raman bands of nanoscale needles shaped histidine. The nano-needles have been grown from droplets of aqueous histidine (30 mM) on silica. Scanning electron microscopy reveals a combined structure of folded flat leaves and needles with diameters in the 50 nm range. The observed spectral bands are compared with density functional calculations. The C-H stretching vibrational bands of the imidazole ring are identified. C-H stretching mode of the back bone is found to be strongly conformational dependent. (C) 2007 Published by Elsevier B.V.