The main focus of this work had been to grow good quality crystals from amino acids and amino acid-based materials for nonlinear optics (NLO) applications. For the first time, a series of amino acid complexes doped with transition metal ions were grown in our laboratory from aqueous solutions by slow evaporation technique. Ni(II) ion doped Manganese L-Histidine hydrochloride monohydrate (Ni(II)-MnLHICl) crystals were grown on the same lines and were characterized by powder X-ray diffraction (XRD), optical absorption, electron paramagnetic resonance, and infrared absorption studies. From Powder XRD, the unit cell lattice parameters were calculated as = 1.5301 nm, = 0.8928 nm and = 0.6851 nm. From electron paramagnetic resonance (EPR) spectra, isotropic "g" factor and spin hamiltonian parameter A all were calculated as 2.0439 and 20×10 −4 , respectively. From optical absorption studies, crystal field splitting value ( ) and the interelectron repulsion parameters B and C were calculated for Ni 2+ and Mn 2+ as = 850 cm −1 , = 725 cm −1 , = 2640 cm −1 and = 915 cm −1 , = 810 cm −1 , = 2780 cm −1 , respectively. The presence of various functional groups and the modes of vibrations were confirmed by FTIR studies.